

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
















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PENELOPE’S WEB 


AN EPISODE OF SORRENTO 


BY 


OWEN INNSLY 


AUTHOR OF “ LOVE POEMS AND SONNETS 


V 




“ IVem Gott will rechte Gunst erwetsen 
Den schickt er in die weite Welt” 






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BOSTON 

J. G. CUPPLES CO., Publishers 


Copyright, 1890, 

By J. G. Cupples Co. 


All rights reserved. 


PRESS OF 

Hodgbs & Adams, 21 Knapp St , 

BOSTON, MASS. 






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^0 ^^e £iO»m of Jfaf'g. 






CONTENTS 


Page, 

CHAPTER I. — En Route 9 

CHAPTER II. — First Impressions ... 30 

CHAPTER III. — Helena’s History • • • 55 

CHAPTER IV. — A Sorrento Evening . . 133 

CHAPTER V. — I Signori Bianchi ... 161 

CHAPTER VI.— A Visit TO Capri ... 208 

CHAPTER VII. — “ The July Night” ... 235 

CHAPTER VIII. — Mental Struggles . . 256 

CHAPTER IX. — A Rupture and a Reconcilia- 
tion 280 

CHAPTER X. — Departure 305 

CHAPTER XI. — The Irony of Fate . . . 319 












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CHAPTER I. 

EN ROUTE. 

A SHORT time ago, while some repairs or 
new constructions were in progress along 
the beginning of the Sorrento road, the blast- 
ing of rocks prevented all travel except at 
certain hours of the day, when the morning 
and afternoon trains from Naples arrived at 
Castellammare. At these times operations 
were suspended and carriages allowed to pass. 
Persons driving from Naples, or from the 
more distant towns and villages of the neigh- 
boring district, rarely knew of the obstruction 
of the road, and frequently, on their arrival 
at the spot of detention shortly after the way 
had been closed, were obliged to wait several 


10 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


hours before they could proceed any farther 
on their journey. 

By two o’clock on the afternoon of a day 
late in April, a considerable number of 
vehicles was already assembled. They were of 
all shapes and sizes and their occupants were 
no less varied than themselves. There were 
two-horse carriages bearing a faint resemblance 
to landaus, some of them scrubbed and 
polished, many broken down in appearance 
and covered with dust; there were Naples’ 
carrozzelle, with their high steps and higher 
seats, mounted on which one feels like a bird 
upon a perch; there were donkey carriages, 
those minutest of all invented conveyances, 
and often the most dilapidated; there were 
carts and country wagons ; there was one 
aristocratic ecclesiastical equipage, in which a 
monsignore, distinguishable by the green cord 
and tassels upon his broad-brimmed hat, sat in 
lofty grandeur, while two young priests filled 
the places opposite him, their backs to the 
horses ; and there were not a few char-a-bancs y 
or corriccoliy one of the most characteristic 
productions of Southern Italy, — large, high^ 


EN ROUTE. 


H 


double-seated vehicles, on or about which as 
many as fifteen or sixteen persons often sit, 
lie, or cling at once. Some of these were 
quite smart-looking,” and were drawn by 
horses or donkeys, a portion of whose manes 
was gathered up into a tuft on the top of their 
heads and tied with a bright ribbon. They 
also had bells disposed about their harness 
and long, stiff feathers rising above their ears. 

The people in the corriccoli were dressed in 
holiday attire ; the men and boys had cockades 
of ribbon and artificial flowers fastened into 
their hats, and the women, with smoothly 
braided, shining hair and gay-colored hand- 
kerchiefs folded over their shoulders, held in 
their hands tambourines which they shook as 
the spirit moved them, or as they happened to 
detect the gaze of some unaccustomed for- 
eigner fixed upon them with mingled astonish- 
ment and admiration. These people had been 
to some festa in one of the neighboring 
towns, and were the prudent ones who had 
concluded to forego the fascinations of the 
fireworks in order to reach home before dark. 
The other carriages were occupied by peo- 


12 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


pie of various nationalities and ranks in the 
social scale. Here a shabby priest or two 
with book and rosary and the invariably 
accompanying snulf-box ; here an English fam- 
ily , — mamma and papa with several grown-up 
sons and daughters, the ladies in the neatest 
travelHng costumes, the gentlemen in light- 
colored suits, and straw hats with white mus- 
lin streamers hanging down behind, to protect 
their necks from the sun. 

Filling a sort of open omnibus or excursion 
wagon, the property of some hotel, and spill- 
ing over into an army of donkey carriages, 
was a party of fifteen American girls, sent 
by their families to do Europe ” under the 
charge of a W estern clergyman, his wife, and 
a governess. These girls were very gay and 
very noisy, and their conduct awakened scorn 
and derision in the breasts of their English 
fellow-travellers. 

A little farther on were some German art- 
ists with soft, slouching hats and distracted 
beards ; from their vetture protruded the long 
poles of sketching umbrellas, the stands of 
easels, and other tokens of their profession, 


EN ROUTE. 


13 


while their vetturini had stuffed the space 
between the boot and box of the vehicle with 
great bundles of hay and straw for the accom- 
modation of the horses, thereby lending to 
these equipages an air of the most agreeable 
saiif gene. There were also other Germans 
and English people, among them several mem- 
bers of that maiden sisterhood which, worthy 
representatives of the Teutonic and Anglo- 
Saxon races, are to be met with on every 
famous site and in every romantic corner of 
Europe. But in Italy do Germans chiefly 
congregate ; for no other foreign people love 
Italy quite so well as they. This beautiful 
and chosen country, after Greece the cradle of 
modern civilization, and the teacher of the 
nations, is to them almost a second fatherland. 

Among the mass of foreigners was also a 
fair sprinkling of Italians of the upper classes ; 
gentlemen going to look after their campagnas 
and orange groves ; hommes d'affaires coming 
to see that the villas of their employers were 
ready for occupation ; for the season was 
advanced this year, and some proprietors 
already began to think of residing for a few 
weeks in their country homes. 


14 


A SOBRENTO ROMANCE. 


Some of the Italians smoked and yawned, 
some went comfortably to sleep. The priests 
told their rosaries and took snuff. The mon- 
signore read his breviary, hardly condescend- 
ing to raise his eyes from its pages. Some 
people took out their note-books and jotted 
down their impressions of the scene; while 
the English ladies produced sketch-books and 
sketched away with an indefatigability worthy 
of more satisfactory results. The papas read 
the guide-books in a loud tone, and in English, 
to whomever it might concern. The young 
men and the German artists, smoking of 
course, left the carriages and lounged about, 
watching the American girls, to whom the 
process of eating their lunch, with their laps 
as a table and their fingers for knives and 
forks, seemed to afford unlimited amusement. 
The donkeys and horses munched the short 
grass and weeds at the side of the road. 
Italian children went about among the crowd, 
offering flowers and oranges for sale ; and the 
vetturini conversed with each other, as is their 
wont, by means of their fingers assisted by 
various remarkable grimaces and contortions 


EN ROUTE. 


15 


of the body, or exchanged jokes and abuse 
pretty equally in the horrible Neapolitan 
patois. 

As the afternoon wore on the original group 
was increased by the arrival of other carriages, 
among which was one rather large and of 
respectable appearance, except for the dust 
which covered it, in which were seated three 
persons — two ladies, evidently mother and 
daughter, and a young man. The driver, who 
possessed a good-natured-looking face, and was 
more confidence-inspiring than most of the 
Neapolitan brigands who have selected the 
profession of vetturini, urging his horses 
through the outlying ranks of children, beg- 
gars, loungers, and foot-passengers, succeeded, 
by dint of much gesticulation and vociferation, 
in securing for himself and his party a good 
position under the shadow of a tree. 

Ya hene f Will this do ? said he, turn- 
ing round on the box with a smile which 
showed all his handsome white teeth. 

Va henissimo/’ responded the young man 
with an answering smile. And now, Mrs. 
Wyndham, we will set you up dmectly with 
some lunch.’’ 


16 


A SOERENTO ROMANCE. 


^^Yes, for heaven’s sake, get the chicken 
out/’ said the elder lady, I never was so hun- 
gry in my life. Emily, where did you put the 
salt?” 

Here it is, mamma,” said her daughter in 
a soothing tone ; and the chicken is all nicely 
cut. Don’t speak a word until you have had 
something to eat.” 

The elderly lady obeyed the admonition, 
and her daughter, who for the last ten min- 
utes had been holding the lunch basket in 
readiness for the instant when they should 
stop, swiftly spread a napkin over her mother’s 
knees, and laid upon it the best pieces of 
chicken, some slices of tongue, and a couple of 
buttered rolls. Then she and the young man 
helped themselves, and a few moments of 
silence ensued, during which the party devoted 
themselves to the satisfying of the first per- 
emptory cravings of hunger. 

‘‘ It is not very romantic, but it tastes good,” 
said Emily at last, holding a morsel of white 
meat between her fingers. Have n’t they 
given us a nice lunch, mamma ? ” 

^^It does very well,” returned that lady. 


EK ROUTE. 


17 


Harold, where is the wine ? Now I ’m 
choked. I suppose I shall have to drink it 
clear/’ she continued, as Harold poured her 
out a tumblerful of the rich-colored red liquid. 
“ I don’t see any water anywhere.” 

0, there is plenty of water in it already, 
you may be sure,” said Harold, it would be 
a pity to mix it any more. They say you 
never can get pure wine now-a-days. Hold 
your glass, Emily ; and here is for myself.” 

^^Well,” began Mrs. Wyndham, when her 
lunch and the copious draught of wine had in 
a measure restored her strength, “ it may be 
all very well for young people to go jaunting 
about on such a day’s excursion, but it ’s a great 
deal too much for an old woman like me. 
Three mortal hours, if not more, hobbling 
about on those pavements in Pompeii ; for you 
can’t do anything but hobble on such cobble- 
stones, and under the broiling sun in the very 
hottest part of the day ! ” 

But you wanted to see it, mamma,” said 
Emily, gently, and you know you enjoyed it 
and thought it very interesting.” 

I don’t deny that,” replied her mother ; ‘‘ I 


18 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


did like it, especially the loaves of bread — just 
as they were taken out of the oven and burnt 
to a cinder — and the poor creatures lying on 
their faces ; but if I had known what I do now 
I never would have done it ; and all this driving 
too ! There is n’t a bone in my body that does 
n’t ache. Besides, if you children have got so 
Europeanized that you can start off on nothing 
but a cup of coffee and an egg, I miss my sub- 
stantial breakfast ” — 

You might have had a chop, ma’am, if you 
had wished,” interposed the young man. 

Don’t talk to me, Harold,” Mrs. Wyndham 
replied. If I have n’t lived three years in 
Paris, like you, I have been long enough in 
these parts to learn one thing, and that is, that 
what these people are used to doing they do 
very well, perhaps even better than our folks ; 
I am willing to admit that they may. But 
require of them any little thing out of the 
common way and they seem clean daft. You 
might as well try to get a cup of tea with your 
luncheon in one of these foreign restaurants as 
to — to — boil a kettle of hot water on top of 
the North Pole,” concluded the old lady, paus- 
ing in search of a simile sufficiently emphatic. 


EN ROUTE. 


19 


But I daresay the people in our country 
towns would be very much surprised if we 
should ask for red wine with our supper/^ said 
Emily. People are pretty much the same all 
over the world, I fancy.’’ 

Besides,” added Harold, hjere they would 
only look upon you as slightly demented, while 
in some of our States you might be visited 
by a temperance committee. Is n’t it so, 
mamma ? ” 

^^Well, I suppose it is,” assented Mrs. 
Wyndham, who always easily recovered her 
good-humor. 

0 ! ” cried Emily, as another char-orhanc 
drove up filled with a particularly handsome 
company of peasant men and women ; do look, 
mamma ! I can hardly count them, — thirteen, 
fourteen — and two boys hanging on under- 
neath. Sixteen people, I declare ! Is it not 
marvellous ? ” 

They ought to be reported to the Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” 
said Mrs. Wyndham, more inclined to the 
humanitarian than the picturesque point of 


view. 


20 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


I never saw animals so willing as they are 
down here/’ remarked Harold. Those horses 
came in as fresh and brisk as if they had only 
two or three persons to pull, and ours have not 
broken their steady trot once to-day. They 
say the drivers are often very cruel, but we 
have seen nothing of it. Think of the donkeys 
we had for Camaldoli ! Their masters petted 
and talked to them as if they had been human 
beings, and the creatures seemed to understand 
them perfectly.” 

^^Yes, I know,” answered Emily; ^‘my boy 
contrived to make me comprehend that his 
donkey was his friend ^ — his ^ buon’ amico,’ he 
said.” 

Some of us treat our friends badly enough,” 
declared Mrs. Wyndham, sententiously. 

0, Harold,” cried Emily, as a trim httle 
carriage and pair drove up near them, is not 
that pretty ? That must be a private carriage, 
of course.” 

Just beyond it is as picturesque a fellow as 
ever I saw. I should like to get out and draw 
him.” 

Why don’t you ? ” asked Emily.. 


$ 


EN ROUTE. 


21 


I don’t think there would be time ; people 
seem to be getting into their carriages again.” 

And so they did. In an instant, without any 
visible signal given or received, every driver 
was on his box, the reins were gathered up, 
and they were all whirling down a slight des- 
cent that lay before them, over hollows and 
stones, the carriages rocking and swaying from 
side to side, avoiding each other’s wheels only as 
if by some miracle ; the vetturini cracking their 
whips and shouting at the top of their lungs 
to urge on their horses, as if they had all gone 
mad together and were running a race to Bed- 
lam. 

Tam O’Shanter was nothing to this,” cried 
Harold, while Emily burst into an uncontrolla- 
ble peal of laughter, and her terrified mother 
clutched her daughter on one side and the seat 
of the carriage on the other, expecting each 
moment to be her last. 

But after a time the weaker horses and hea- 
vier loads were left behind ; the swifter steeds 
and lighter carriages distanced the intermediate 
ones ; the wild course calmed into an easy gait, 
and our party regained their composure and 


s 


22 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


were able to take notice of the way over which 
they were proceeding. 

At first the road followed the water’s edge, 
but at a considerable height above it. Lined 
with sweet-scented locust trees, it wound in and 
out with the deep bays and creeks that indent 
the coast and sometimes run up for some dis- 
tance between the hills. On one side sheer 
precipices fell to where the sea, glowing, beyond 
the shore, with the deepest sapphire blue, 
assumed a mysterious dark-green color where 
it lapped the little beaches' or filled the caves 
that hollow out the rocks ; or, for a space, was 
dyed with light and varied hues where the 
mineral waters come flowing into it from their 
sources in the earth. On the left lay the chain 
of hills out of whose sides the road was cut. 
Upon the slopes was a paradise of flowers : deli- 
cate pink convolvulus, wild sweet peas, and fields 
of the cactus-hke ice-plant covering the gray 
rocks with a carpet of crimson blossom and hang- 
ing down almost to the road. Here a bank was all 
on fire with scarlet poppies and golden broom. 
Beyond, in wonderful contrast, twined and 
clambered white wild-roses and the large, white 


EN ROUTE. 


23 


convolvulus. Then there came patches of rich, 
dark-red clover, pink poppies, and blossoms 
whose names Emily did not know. 

Now the road turned somewhat from the 
sea, the hills retreated from the road, and be- 
tween them and it vineyards sloped, and again, 
on the other side, downwards to the sea. 
Then came the olive groves with their gray, 
weird foliage, the grass at their feet radiant 
with flowers. Now they passed one or two vil- 
lages and found themselves among the orange 
orchards. At this season of the year the trees 
were still in bloom, but some of the already 
ripened or ripening oranges had been allowed 
to remain upon the branches, and golden 
fruit hung among the snowy blossoms. 

A slight shower of rain began to fall. Mrs. 
Wyndham took alarm and wanted the carriage 
closed; but the good-natured driver assured 
her it would be nothing. In fact, in ten min- 
utes the sun had broken through the clouds 
again in all its declining glory, tingeing with 
gold the lustrous foliage of the orange-trees, 
turning to diamonds the big drops that hung 
upon the branches, and illuminating the spec- 


24 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


tral olive trees with a glistening light. The swift 
rain had brought out all the hidden sweetness 
in grove and garden ; the air was heavy with 
the fragrance of the orange blossoms ; every 
breath brought with it a species of intoxication. 
No one spoke, for the charm that held them was 
too perfect for vrords, but Harold saw tears 
come into Emily’s eyes, and held out his hand 
to give and receive a sympathetic clasp. 

And now they clattered over the paved streets 
of another village where, as in the former ones 
they had passed, the children came out to throw 
roses into the carriage, and beg for haiocchi^ 
and where all the men and women were gathered 
in the doorways, the women with distaffs in their 
hands, and the men doing nothing at all but 
bestride their chairs ; for this seems to be the 
blessed land where the stronger sex may know 
the sweets of idleness. Only, in the little 
squares, a few men lay lazily, half asleep, across 
their unhired donkey carriages, and a few 
women shuffled along, their wooden shoes re- 
sounding noisily on the stones. 

Finally the vetturino turned to them, at the 
same time pointing forwards with his whip, 


EN ROUTE. 


25 


and crying in a cheery voice Ecco Sorrent I ” 

But before they reached the centre of the 
town they turned aside to the right, into a lane 
confined on either side by a high wall enclos- 
ing orange gardens, and so narrow that the 
wheels almost grated against the walls. Mrs. 
Wyndham was seized with not altogether un- 
justifiable apprehensions that they should stick 
fast. And what will become of me then ? 
she demanded anxiously. 

We should have to get you out as they did 
the old lady in ' the ^ Pictures from Italy,’ ” 
said Emily ; only she was in a worse predica- 
ment than you would be. She was in a close 
carriage and they had to pull her out of the 
window, whereas Harold could easily climb over 
the back of this carriage and go for a ladder.” 

But as they proceeded the lane grew no nar- 
rower, and it seemed probable that they would 
pass through it in safety ; although then the 
old lady’s mind was disturbed by visions of 
meeting with another carriage, a dilemma from 
which she could again imagine no issue. 

However, by some fortunate chance, carriages 
never do seem to meet in these frightfully nar- 


26 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


row lanes, and the party arrived safely at the 
quaint entrance of the Hotel Cocumella. 

They had written to announce their arrival, 
but the waiter who spoke French happened to 
have stepped into the garden. A young girl 
who had appeared at the door at the sound of 
carriage wheels, rang a bell violently for the 
absent waiter, and then ushered the ladies 
upstairs to await his return. Harold remained 
behind to pay the driver. 

Yolete entrare ? ” said the young girl to 
Mrs. Wyndham and Emily, throwing open the 
parlor door. 

The room was not empty. Before the little 
mirror, almost opposite the door, stood a lady 
who, with both arms raised above her head, 
was arranging an orange blossom in her hair. 
She. was dressed in creamy white, and a little 
gold-colored shawl of Italian silk hung about 
her shoulders. 

With the quickness of the feminine percep- 
tion with regard to the attire and personal ap- 
pearance of those of their own sex, Mrs. Wynd- 
ham and Emily immediately took in the 
faultless appointments of this lady’s toilette 


EN ROUTE. 


27 


and the magnificent braids of red-gold hair 
twisted about her head. 

But they were struck with admiration, which 
showed plainly in their faces, when, having con- 
cluded the operation of securing the flower, the 
lady turned, disclosing a countenance of almost 
perfect beauty. They saw no defect in her : 
not in the hair that rippled away from the low 
forehead, although some might not prefer 
its color ; not in the large, deep-set eyes, the 
regular nose, and the mouth neither too large 
nor too small ; nor in the beautifully shaped 
head and full white throat about which she 
wore a soft tulle ruche fastened by a heavy 
brooch of Roman gold. She was perhaps rather 
too stout for her height, but neither Mrs. Wynd- 
ham nor her daughter was inclined to find 
fault with this ; for, like so many of her Ameri- 
can sisters, Emily was too thin ; and her mother 
had attained unwieldy proportions. 

The possessor of all the above-mentioned 
perfections gave one swdft glance at the new- 
comers, with which she doubtless took them 
in ” also ; then, with an inclination which was 
half a bow and half a courtesy, accompanied 


28 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


by a murmured Pardon, mesdames as she 
passed before them, she left the room. 

She ’s a beauty ! ’’ exclaimed Mrs. Wyndham 
as the figure of the fair unknown disappeared 
in the corridor. 

She is the loveliest creature I ever saw,’’ 
cried Emily enthusiastically, and, of course, 
she is staying here. 0, Harold,” she con- 
tinued as her lover appeared (for he was her 
lover, and they had been engaged for several 
years), we have just seen the most beautiful 
woman in the world. I do wish you had been 
here You will go wild about her. She has red 
hair — just the shade you like — that lovely 
color that is in the Venetian pictures.” 

Harold smiled at the young girl’s enthu- 
siasm. 

“ She is probably staying in the house,” he 
said, and if so, there is time enough. Here 
is the waiter to show us our rooms. The stairs 
are not hard, and it is much pleasanter on the 
upper floor. Will you come now, ma’am? ” 

Mrs. Wyndham rose from the sofa, and they 
all followed the waiter to the apartments allotted 
them. 


EN ROUTE. 


29 


Diner a sept heures, mesdames^^ remarked 
that individual, preparatory to closing the door 
of the ladies’ room. 

There is a whole hour to rest in, mamma,” 
said Emily ; now you lie right down and 
get a nap, and I will wake you in time for 
dinner.” 


CHAPTER II. 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 

When the Wyndhams and Harold Hart 
descended to the table d^hbte, Emily found, to 
her great satisfaction, that their places were 
opposite that of the beautiful woman they had 
already seen. As they took their seats, this 
lady acknowledged their arrival by a bow. 

There were perhaps twenty persons present, 
but in this inconsiderable number several 
nationalities were represented. At one end 
of the table was a party of Russians, talking 
volubly, in a loud tone of voice, in their im- 
possible tongue. Beyond them were three 
Germans, two of whom, belonging to the old 
school, sat with their elbows on the table and 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


31 


their heads in their plates, evincing a sublime 
indifference as to which utensil, knife or fork, 
conveyed their food to their mouths, plying 
first one and then the other, or sometimes serv- 
ing themselves with both at once, and all this 
with such rapidity that their plates were always 
cleared before the servant in attendance could 
make the half circuit of the table. Seated 
beside them, but not of their party, was the 
third German, a good specimen of the most 
civilized class of the present generation. He 
had refined, even elegant manners, and re- 
garded his countrymen’s performances with 
almost as much horror as they awakened in 
the Anglo-Saxon breast. Between this gentle- 
man and the Beauty, as Emily, in her own 
mind, had designated the lady who had so 
excited her interest and admiration, were a 
young Italian couple, evidently on their wed- 
ding journey, and a short, thickset man in the 
Italian uniform. The young couple were too 
much occupied with each other to pay much 
attention to their neighbors, and the German 
gentleman occasionally cast longing glances 
across them in the Beauty’s direction, for he 


32 • 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


had overheard the wunderschone Frau” 
speaking German, and would fain have made 
her acquaintance. With the exception of an 
American lady with two charming daughters, 
to one of whom a young Englishman was 
paying violent court, the rest of the company 
belonged to the single female genus, — one 
German, two or three Scandinavians, and half 
a dozen English maidens, varying in age from 
twenty-five to sixty. 

It was not a particularly brilliant assembly, 
and except the Russians, no one spoke while 
the soup was being served. When the fish 
was fairly under way, however, Emily, who 
had soon laid down her fork, ventured to look 
up, and found the eyes of her opposite neigh- 
bor fixed upon her with a smile responding to 
her own. 

Then the Beauty opened the conversation 
with the conventional question : Is this your 
first visit to Sorrento ? ” 

The powers be praised ! she spoke English. 
Emily, who had studied her furtively during 
the first moments of dinner, had been quite 
unable to decide upon her nationality. There 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


33 


was something so foreign about her general 
style and manner that the young girl feared 
that, should those lovely lips open for her, it 
would be to propound the problem : Parlez- 
vous frangais. Mademoiselle?” 

Like most American girls of her station in 
life, Emily knew French, but it was what 
might be called the French of necessity. She 
could supply her own and her mother’s wants 
in railway stations and hotels, but she could 
not express herself fluently nor sustain a con- 
versation in the French tongue. In the New 
England States we are too rarely brought into 
contact with foreigners to acquire much facility 
in speaking foreign languages, and Emily had 
not been long enough in Europe to correct 
this deficiency. Therefore it was with a sense 
of relief that she heard the words : Is this 
your first visit to Sorrento ? ” 

The Beauty not only spoke English, but 
spoke it without accent, only with some pre- 
cision of pronunciation, and with a certain 
delicacy and “ fineness,” if one may so call it, 
not uncommon in persons who have been long 
absent from their native soil, and who have 


34 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


become accustomed to use foreign languages 
oftener than their own. 

Yes/’ answered Emily, a glow of pleasure 
overspreading her face, we have never been 
here before. We drove from Naples, stopping 
at Pompeii on the way.” 

Is not Pompeii a wonderful place ? ” 

0, most wonderful ! I hated to come 
away, except that one gets so tired walking 
over the stones and seeing so much. Mamma 
was completely exhausted.” 

Your mother should have been carried 
about,” said their new acquaintance, there 
are comfortable chairs and good bearers.” 

I should not dare to trust myself in one of 
those arrangements,” interposed Mrs. Wynd- 
ham with decision ; I am too heavy for the 
men ; they would be sure to let me fall.” 

I want very much to return there some 
time,” continued Emily. We thought we two 
at least might go by ourselves, did we not, 
Harold?” 

^^Yes,” he answered, ^^and it is certainly 
easy enough to drive from here. One could 
get up rather early in the morning, and it 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


35 


must be pleasant to do that here, though we 
are very lazy people.” 

“ The early morning is the most beautiful 
part of the day in these warm countries,” said 
their new friend, thus indirectly addressed. 

If you stay here long, you will have to 
accustom yourselves to early rising. At least 
in the summer it is best to adopt the habits of 
the natives. They rise with the sun, go to 
bed again in the middle of the day, and sit up 
half the night. As for Pompeii, it is a drive 
of not more than two or three hours, as you 
have seen to-day. You can start in the morn- 
ing, spend the whole day there, and drive home 
towards night. Or you can choose a time 
when there is a moon, and visit the ruins by 
moonlight. One can obtain permission from 
the director of the museum at Naples.” 

That would be delightful ! ” exclaimed 
Emily, thank you for suggesting it.” 

The conversation lingered for a time on the 
subject of Pompeii, and then turned upon the 
beauty of the road to Sorrento, which Emily 
declared to be the loveliest she had ever 
seen. 


36 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


understand your enthusiasm/’ said the 
Beauty. I shall never forget the impression 
it made upon me when I came over it for the 
first time, with my father, many years ago. It 
was a season much like this, far advanced and 
warm ; the trees were loaded with blossoms 
and the fields with flowers. For us North- 
erners there is a great charm in the Southern 
vegetation ; everything is so rich and exuber- 
ant. Before one is used to such prodigality in 
Nature it almost takes away one’s breath.” 

There was a pause in the conversation, dur- 
ing which they all proceeded with their dinner, 
and the Beauty exchanged a few remarks with 
her neighbor, the Italian captain. 

After a time Mrs. Wyndham began again. 

My daughter tells me that this house was an 
old monastery.” 

I believe it was,” returned the Beauty. 

That is the reason why my young folks 
were bent on coming here,” continued the old 
lady ; they thought it would be so romantic. 
I told them I thought we had much better go 
to a place that was meant for a hotel, where we 
could have things as they ought to be ; hut 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


37 


Emily thought she knew what she was about, 
so of course we came ; and now I have got 
here, it isn’t a bit like what I expected. I 
supposed we had got to sleep in cells, but I 
don’t see that any one needs a bigger room 
than ours. It is n’t my idea of a monastery at 
all.” 

I presume there have been a good many 
changes in the old place since the days when 
the monks inhabited it,” replied the Beauty, 
but traces of their rule are still left in the 
multitude of corridors and terraces and the 
little chapel where we may hear Mass on Sun- 
day mornings, not to mention the court with 
its convent well. But if you wish to live in 
a real monastery and sleep in a cell, you must 
go to the Capuccini in Amalfi. The old Cap- 
uccini monastery there has lately been fitted 
up as a hotel, very comfortably, but with 
as few alterations as possible. It is quite 
unique.” 

It must be charming,” exclaimed Emily, 
we must go there, mamma.” 

Some people prefer Amalfi to Sorrento,” 
continued the Beauty, but I think this pref- 


38 


A SOKRENTO ROMANCE. 


erable for a long visit. Do you intend to stay 
here some time?” 

I think we shall,” replied Mrs. Wyndham. 

I am tired to death of visiting churches 
and looking at pictures, and jogging about 
from one place to another. Besides, I suppose 
chis is really a warm climate in the summer 
time, and I should like to get thawed out for 
once. I have not felt really warm since I left 
America. You have such miserable little fire- 
places here ; all the heat goes up the chimney. 
In some places, even, all they give you is a 
little dish with coals in it, — what do you call 
it ? a scaldino ? — to warm your hands upon, 
and smile upon you and expect you to be con- 
tented. Talk about the sunny South ! Why, 
I never was so cold in my life as I have been 
this winter in Italy.” 

The Beauty smiled. It is the general 
complaint of our country people at first, for 
I am American by birth,” she added with a 
smile to Emily, although you seem incredu- 
lous of the fact.” 

I could not make up my mind,” said 
Emily. I thought you could hardly be 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


39 


French or Italian and speak English so per- 
fectly ; and of course I knew you were not 
English/’ 

The Beauty smiled again, and Mrs. Wynd- 
ham declared triumphantly, I knew the lady 
was an American the moment I set eyes on 
her \ being what she is, she could not be any- 
thing else.” This time the Beauty laughed 
outright. 

‘‘ I am much obliged to you for your kind 
opinion, madam,” she said ; but reserve it 
until I can show you some of my European 
friends.” 

I don’t want to see your European 
friends,” replied the old lady, good humor- 
edly ; my own people are enough for me.” 

By this time the dinner, which was neither 
especially elegant nor of long duration, drew 
to a close, and several of the guests rose from 
their chairs. 

They are hurrying a little to-night,” the 
Beauty explained, for there is to be a dance. 
The padrone and a party of English people 
who take their meals upstairs are celebrating 
a birthday, I believe. You are just in time 


40 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


for the last gayety of the season, or rather for 
the first of the new season, for of course 
there have been no dances during Lent/’ 

0, but I shall not come,” said Emily. 

I am not invited, and I do not know any 
one. 

That makes no difference ; every one in the 
house is expected. You will have plenty of 
partners, and, I think, a very ^ good time,’ as 
the Americans say. Nor can we, I am sure, 
spare such an eligible cavalier as your — 
brother?” hesitating a little over the last 
word. 

Miss W yndham and I are engaged to be 
married,” said Harold, abruptly, like one 
awakened from a dream. He had hardly 
spoken throughout the meal, but his eyes had 
been fixed upon his opposite neighbor, watch- 
ing every movement and change of expression 
of her beautiful face. 

Oh ! ” said the Beauty ; will you not 
bring your fiancee to the dance, monsieur? 
What a pity we have no English word to 
express so delightful a relation ! ” 

I fear it will be too much for my daughter 
after this fatiguing day,” said Mrs. Wyndham. 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


41 


^^0 no, mamma,” exclaimed Emily, am 
not tired at all.” 

Emily does not seem overfatigued, Mrs. 
Wyndham; do let us go and look on for a 
time at least,” urged Harold. 

*^Well, for a little while then,” consented 
the old lady. I suppose we ought to go and 
get ready at once.” 

^^It would be as well. Just take a look at 
our Sorrento English,” continued their new 
acquaintance, calling their attention to a sort 
of tablet on the wall beside the door through 
which they were leaving the dining-room. 

The party paused, and Harold read aloud : — 
Advice to Strangers Gentlemen. 

The proprietor of the house to let, spent, to 
strangers, the regular price, in the service of 
the carriages, horses, and boats, has select, 
some persons of his confidence, who offer 
regularly, the price of tariff. 

ASSES OR HORSES FOR SADDLE. 

Carriage for the walk to Castellammare, 
frs. 

Ass for the walk to Massa, frs. 

Is always, at the disposition of stranger, to 
give the so say, buona mano, or drink-money, 
when they will be well served. 


42 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


“ W ell ! that beats everything I have seen 
yet/’ exclaimed Mrs. Wyndham. 

The last sentence is the most intelligible. 
There is never any doubt about that, I fancy,” 
said Harold. 

It is lucky I put your white nun’s veiling 
into the valise, Emily,” said her mother, as 
they entered their room. Who knows when 
the rest of the luggage will be along? Well, 
this new travelling dress is good enough for an 
old woman like me.” 

When they descended again, the lower part 
of the house had undergone a complete trans- 
formation. The salon was decorated with 
huge bouquets of wild and garden flowers, and 
a refreshment table, covered with sandwiches, 
cakes, lemonade, and Marsala wine was 
arranged in one corner. The upright piano 
stood close beside the dining-room door. All 
the furniture had been removed from the 
dining-room, at one end of which stood the 
musicians, four in number, in striped woollen 
shirts and black trousers, with scarlet sashes 
tied round their waists. Their instruments 
were two violins, a guitar, and a mandolin. 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


43 


The Beauty was already in the salon. She 
came forward to greet her new acquaintances. 
She had exchanged her light woollen dress for 
one of creamy lace ; in her hair and upon her 
bosom she wore a cluster of white wild roses. 
She cast upon Emily a scrutinizing glance, 
which changed instantly into one of approba- 
tion. Only you have no flowers/’ she said, 
as if completing a mental sentence ; and 
unclasping a little diamond brooch which held 
her roses, in spite of Emily’s protestations she 
fastened them upon the bodice of the young 
girl’s frock. They are much more suitable 
to you than to me,” she said with a smile. I 
wish I could get them out of my hair too, but 
I am afraid I should only succeed in tearing it 
badly. 0, Signor Capitano,” she continued, 
addressing the Italian officer, let me present 
you to Miss Wyndham.” ^^He speaks a little 
English,” she whispered to Emily, ^^and he 
dances pretty well. There is the archdeacon, 
who has conducted the English church services 
here this winter,” she went on to Mrs. Wynd- 
ham. You must know him. They call him 
the fighting parson, because when he was 


44 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


chaplain in the army he used to go into battle 
with his men. He is a fine man, and fond of 
Americans. There are the Listers — the lady 
with the pretty daughters whom you saw at 
dinner. I should like to introduce you to 
Miss Maud Lister before she is engaged for all 
the dances, Mr.’’ — 

My name is Hart,” said Harold. 

Thank you. She is a charming country- 
woman of yours and a great favorite — plays 
the violin extremely well. Her sister Gretchen 
is a nice girl too. They have lived so long in 
Germany that they seem half German, but 
they are none the worse for that.” 

‘‘It is very kind of you to interest yourself 
in my young people,” said Mrs. Wyndham, 
when, various introductions having been accom- 
plished, the Beauty returned to her side. 

“ Travellers so seldom get any social enjoy- 
ment that it seems a pity they should not 
profit by what little comes in their way,” was 
the reply. “ Then you see yourself that your 
young people are a great addition to this little 
company. I do not suppose I should have 
come myself but that they need me to help 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


45 


them with their music. These men cannot 
play quadrilles.” 

While they were speaking the musicians 
began to play a polka, and the ball,” as the 
English people called it, had soon commenced 
in earnest. 

Wonderful to relate, there were plenty of 
gentlemen, generally rarissimce aves among 
the English-speaking circles of the Continent. 
Besides the few available visitors at Sorrento 
and two or three Italian officers, a party of 
young artists had come from Capri, intending 
to sail back at dawn. The merriment was not 
confined to the young people ; the middle- 
aged and the elderly entered heartily into the 
spirit of the occasion, dancing with right good- 
will. The archdeacon skipped through the 
Lancers with Emily, and even indulged in a 
polka with a little English girl. 

I never saw people seem to enjoy them- 
selves so well,” exclaimed Mrs. Wyndham, 
with admiration. 

‘‘ Yes, the English are not nearly so languid 
as ourselves. They are as willing to be amused 
at fifty as at twenty-five. I think it is a charm- 
ing trait. ” 


46 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Harold and Emily danced together several 
times, and for the rest the Beauty took care 
that they were always provided with partners. 
She herself refused continual invitations to 
dance. In the intervals of playing quadrilles 
she seated herself beside Mrs. Wyndham, from 
whom, by an adroit question or two, she had 
soon elicited all her simple history. She and 
her daughter came from a suburb of that 
worthiest of cities, popularly known as the hub 
of the universe ; her husband, an officer in one of 
its principal banks, had been dead nearly three 
years. Emily had always wanted to come to 
Europe, but Mr. Wyndham could never find 
an opportunity to leave home, and his wife 
could not bring her mind to come away with- 
out him. They had thought of sending Emily 
with friends, but she was their youngest and 
only remaining child, the others having died in 
infancy ; and when it came to the point they 
could not bear to part with her, so they coaxed 
her to wait.’’ A short time before her father’s 
death she had become engaged to Harold Hart, 
whom she had known more or less all her life. 
He was a New Yorker, but the two families 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


47 


had been in the habit of exchanging frequent 
visits. He had, according to Mrs. Wyndham, 
made as much progress in his art as was possi- 
ble in America, and, not long after his engage- 
ment, had gone to Paris, where he had been 
wearing himself out with work ever since. 
When he started, they expected to follow him 
within a short time, but what with Mr-Wynd- 
ham’s death and other illness in the family, and 
business that would not get settled, their jour- 
ney had been delayed more than two years, and 
they had now been in Europe only about six 
months. They had travelled a little in Switzer- 
land and spent some time in Paris. Then, Mr. 
Hart having fallen ill from overwork, they had 
brought him away to Italy. They had passed a 
month in Florence and a month in Rome, and, 
lately, a few days in Naples. 

Both he and Emily were crazy to come 
down here,^’ concluded Mrs. Wyndham, and 
if they like it, I daresay we shall stay all sum- 
mer. Emily wishes to return to Rome in the 
autumn, unless she concludes to be married, in 
which case, of course, we shall go to Paris ; and 
then I suppose we shall settle down and live 


48 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


there until Mr. Hart has learned all he wants 
to and thinks it is time to go home. Emily is 
rather young to marry ; she is not quite twenty- 
one yet, though you might perhaps take her to 
be older — she was always old for her age, — 
so I am glad they have not been in a hurry. 
Still they have been engaged a good while and 
too much waiting is not desirable either. But 
they’ll settle it between themselves as they 
think best.” 

Thus spoke Mrs. Wyndham, calmly and con- 
tentedly, as if she were recounting the most 
natural things in the world ; while her listener, 
whose ideas were modified by a long European 
experience, felt some inward amusement at 
finding herself in the presence of one of those 
not infrequent American mmages where the 
children govern the parents, in reversal of the 
natural order of things. However, in this 
instance the youthful daughter seemed to rule 
mildly and well, and with a fair show of respect, 
and the mother to submit gladly, almost grate- 
fully, to her control. 

The evening was far advanced, and Mrs. 
Wyndham was in the midst of a long narrative 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


49 


of certain Swiss experiences when she was inter- 
rupted by Harold’s approach. He bowed low 
before the Beauty. 

“Will you waltz with me, madame?” he 
asked abruptly. 

“ With pleasure,” she replied, rising and lay- 
ing her hand upon his arm. 

They floated away, followed by the admiring 
glances of the English ladies. 

“ Well, it is jolly to see such dancing,” said 
one. 

“ 0, it is indeed the poetry of motion,” ex- 
claimed another, raising her eyes to the ceiling. 

“ W ell, he would be turned out of a London 
ball-room if he were to reverse like that,” said 
her brother, who had just released her. “ I 
thought he would run me down.” 

“ But he did not. I fancy there is no dan- 
ger. Shall we try again?” 

Harold bent his head towards his partner’s. 
A delicate perfume of flowers seemed to ema- 
nate from her whole person and penetrate his 
being. W as it the roses she wore in her hair ? 
Emily had such roses also, but he had not 
noticed this fragrance when he danced with her. 


50 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


have not waltzed before since I have 
been on this side of the water/’ he said, as they 
revolved. I hardly dared to try with Miss 
Wyndham to-night.” 

Yet Miss Wyndham dances extremely well, 
and so do you.” 

I have been wanting to ask you all the 
evening,” Harold continued, ^^but I saw you 
refuse every one. I only now found my cour- 
age.” 

‘^You are the only American here except 
old Mr. Green,” replied his partner. I do 
not care to waltz with any but Americans, and 
I care for nothing but waltzing. Dancing is 
our national accomplishment ; do you not think 
so?” 

I suppose so,” answered Harold. Are 
you tired,” he asked at last ; do you want to 
stop?” 

No, no, I could keep on all night.” 

She had hardly spoken when the music sud- 
denly ceased. They rejoined Mrs. Wyndham, 
at whose side Emily was standing panting, 
just released from the vigorous gambols of a 
young Italian lieutenant. 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


51 


I do not want to interfere with you, Har- 
old,’’ said Mrs. Wyndham, but it is after mid- 
night, and Emily ought not to sit up any longer. 
Come, my dear, we really must go.” 

^^Very well,” said the young girl, I am 
ready.” 

How can I thank you enough ! ” she added, 
turning to her new friend. 

I hope you have enjoyed yourself,” said 
the latter smiling. 

^^0 ! ” cried Emily, I have had more than 
the good time you promised me ; I have had a 
^ splendid time,’ as I used to say when I was a 
little girl. I think this has been the most 
perfect day of my life. First Pompeii with its 
wonder and mystery ; then the beautiful drive 
here ; and then this delightful evening. I feel 
as if I had drifted into fairyland.” 

You had better drift into bed as soon 
as possible,” said her mother. Good-night, 
ma’am, and many thanks for your kindness.” 

I thank you too,” said Harold, softly, bow- 
ing over the hand the Beauty extended to him. 

She is an extremely civil person,” said 
Mrs. Wyndham, when they had reached their 


52 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


own apartments. I wonder who she is. We 
really seemed to get quite intimate. And to 
think we don’t even know her name ! She 
knows ours, but I never thought to ask what 
hers was.” 

I think someone called her Mrs. Raymond, 
but I am not sure,” said Emily. 

They left a hotel book in my room that I 
might write our names in it. Her name will 
probably be in that,” suggested Harold. Per- 
haps I can guess it from among the others.” 

Well, just go and try. I confess I should 
sleep easier if I knew who I ’d been talking to 
all the evening.” 

What a charming woman she is,” said 
Emily, lighting the bedroom candle, while her 
mother seated herself on tha edge of the bed. 

Yes, she is a real beauty ; though I never 
knew before that I admired red hair, nor that 
green eyes were beautiful. They do strike you 
as rather queer at first, but you get used to 
them and they are so full of expression. Nor 
did I ever think before,” continued the good 
lady, musingly, “that a complexion without 
any color was a pretty thing ; and she is so all 


FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 


53 


of a shade that you can hardly tell where her 
temples leave off and her hair begins. But 
somehow it seems just right in her.” 

Emily acquiesced, busying herself over the 
contents of the valise until a light tap at the 
door announced Harold’s return. 

If Emily heard our friend called Mrs. 
Raymond, I have found the name,” he said. 

Madame la Baronne Helena C. Raimond, 
Paris.” 

Raimond,” repeated Mrs. Wyndham, C. 
Raimond, Paris.” Her face grew very grave. 

I am afraid, my dears,” she continued, that 
we have been very rash, and that we must be 
much more careful about making acquaintances. 
I know who this Baroness Raimond is. She 
was Helena Cameron, and her father, Dan 
Cameron, was one of the wildest and most dis- 
reputable fellows that ever went out of New 
England. He and his daughter spent their 
lives rampaging over Europe, and finally he 
married her to a Frenchman. Whatever be- 
came of the husband I don’t know ; something 
dreadful, I believe. Her aunt, a most estima- 
ble woman, used to visit in New Haven at the 
time I did, when we were both young girls. 


54 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


But from all I have heard about this niece, she 
is the last person with whom I should wish my 
daughter to associate. Of course we must be 
polite/’ continued the good lady, relenting a 
little before the severity of her own sentence, 

for we have gone and accepted her civilities; 
hut we must not be intimate. You, Emily, 
and you too, Harold, must be as cool as you 
decently can, and we must avoid her as much 
as possible. And now, good-night, Harold. I 
can’t hear anything about it now. I am dead 
tired and want to get to bed.” 

In spite of Mrs. Wyndham’s anxiety concern- 
ing their new acquaintance, and in spite of 
Emily’s excitement, she and her daughter were 
soon asleep ; but Harold lay long with wide- 
open eyes, while the sound of dance music 
drifted up from below, and the vision of that 
beautiful head with the red-gold hair and the 
sweet, mysterious eyes lingered upon his 
brain. 

Whether Mrs. Wyndham’s doubts as to the 
desirability of Helena Raimond’s companion- 
ship for her daughter were justifiable or not 

■ il be seen in the following chapter. 


CHAPTER III. 

Helena’s history. 

The first thing that Helena recollected, far 
back in the depths of her infant consciousness, 
was a multitude of lights ; then a vast space 
in which these lights sparkled and twinkled, as^ 
afterwards, the stars that fill the Southern 
heavens had shone above her, as she had 
sailed, in summer evenings, through the 
tranquil waters of the Mediterranean. But 
the lights of her babyhood were more in num- 
ber, brighter and nearer earth, than the stars. 
In one direction was an immense confused blot,^ 
like that which falls before the eyes of a person 
suddenly affected by giddiness, and above that 
were many rows of forms which seemed mar- 


56 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


vellously suspended in mid-air, for the child 
could detect no visible means of support. But 
she was not frightened, nor did her attention 
long wander to anything beyond the immediate 
circle of her vision, for though the wide space 
in which the people seemed to float was wonder- 
ful enough, yet close about her was a species of 
fairyland still more enticing. Here were trees 
greener and more luxuriant than any she after- 
wards saw during her walks in the New York 
parks, and their backs were studded with many 
colored lamps. 

On one side a broad cascade fell noiselessly 
to the ground ; its diamond showers, reflecting 
all the colors of the rainbow, disappearing mira- 
culously as they touched the earth, and not at 
all wetting the feet of the persons who stood 
near. In the background was a glittering 
palace, and all about a race of beings who 
appeared its fitting inhabitants, — fairies or 
angels, — some in snowy white, some in delicate 
pink or green or blue ; some with long, loosely 
flowing robes ; many with a decided lack of 
drapery ; and all with very white skins and very 
red cheeks; some with golden wands in their 


Helena's history. 


57 


hands and some with rainbow-tipped wings 
to their shoulders. These beautiful creatures 
reclined upon mossy banks, or stoc^, half em- 
bracing each other, in groups of varied outlines 
and contours, and among these last Helena saw 
other little children like herself. But these 
children all had wings and gossamer robes, and 
were so lovely that she thought they could not 
be akin to her, until, looking down at her own 
little person, she found that her robes swept the 
ground, and that her tiny feet were encased in 
golden slippers, and, although she could not 
see her own back, she began to trust that her 
wings might have sprouted too. The palace 
with the shining walls was the Abode of 
Bliss,” by a residence in which a much-perse- 
cuted youth and maiden were to be rewarded 
for their unswerving adherence to the paths of 
virtue. The glittering beings about it were 
the protecting fairies, the Christian virtues, and 
the heathen muses (alias the corps de ballet), 
who, in delightful confusion, were assembled 
in honor of the virtuous pair. The scene of 
the struggles and triumphs of the above-men- 
tioned deserving couple was the stage of a 



/ 




/ 


58 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


certain New York theatre, among the first to 
produce one of those spectacular plays which, 
for some years, were such favorite species 
of entertainment with the American public. 

And now the palace began to glow with a 
pale, green light ; then that faded, giving place 
to a vivid scarlet, and finally, wonderful to re- 
late, the whole structure parted in the middle, 
disclosing new groups of sylphs, among whom 
the youth and maiden reclined upon a golden 
couch, while, above them, rose slowly through 
the air a radiant figure, the guardian and pro- 
tectress of their fates. She was robed in white 
and gold, and her neck and beautiful arms 
were hare. A golden star glittered upon her 
brow, and her luxuriant black hair fell almost 
to her feet, enveloping her like a mantle. She 
held in her hand a wand with which she pointed 
to the happy pair below. 

A salvo of applause burst from the parquet 
and a great stamping of feet from the gallery, 
mingled with shouts of Bravo,” and a cry or 
two of Rose Lazare ! ” Helena was fright- 
ened by the noise, and, happening to look up 
in her terror, recognized in the face of that 


Helena’s history. 


59 


lovely vision, hanging amid the pasteboard 
clouds, the well-known features of her mother. 
Her little arms were outstretched in a mo- 
ment, and a childish treble called Mamma ! 
Mamma ! ” A fairy at her side (otherwise a 
young girl who often took care of Helena, and 
who was called Annette) hastily placed her 
hand over the child’s mouth, and the cry 
was lost amid the boisterous plaudits of the 
audience. But it had reached the mother’s 
ears, and, unmindful of her precarious posi- 
tion, she leaned forward anxiously to catch a 
glimpse of her little girl. The light fabric that 
supported her rocked ominously, she seemed 
about to fall, and a thrill of horror ran through 
the house ; but only the wand dropped from her 
hand with which she caught at the rope at her 
side, recovering her equilibrium with a smile. 
The applause became stormier than ever, and 
then a veil passed between the supernatural 
inhabitants of fairyland and the sea of faces 
beyond the footlights : the curtain had fallen. 
When it rose for the second and third time 
upon the transformation scene, one group was 
shghtly displaced : Annette and Helena had 
left the stage. 


60 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


When Rose Lazare was lowered from her 
position in the clouds and touched terra jirma 
again, she received a reprimand from the man- 
ager of the theatre for having been so near 
losing her balance and causing a scandal on 
the first representation of the new piece ; be- 
sides which, as she knew very well, he had no 
one to replace her, possessing her personal 
attractions and so great a favorite with the 
public. But with a quick word or two. Rose 
demonstrated to him that her escape from an 
accident had but disposed that same public 
more warmly than ever in her favor, and, leav- 
ing him somewhat astonished at her audacity, 
she hastened to her dressing-room. Here, 
snatching her little daughter in her arms, and 
throwing herself into a chair regardless of 
the injury to her tulle and tarletan draperies, 
she rocked the child to and fro on her breast, 
covering her with kisses. Her magnificent 
hair swept the ground as she bent over her 
baby, and the two formed the most charming 
picture of a Madonna and child conceivable; 
but it was a Miidonna with the tresses of a 
Mary of Egypt whose locks were permitted to 


Helena’s history. 


61 


grow in the desert and cover her with a gar- 
ment, in default of more ordinary vestments. 

In this position of a doting mother Daniel 
Cameron found her when he reached her 
dressing-room, having been detained on his way 
thither by one and another of his acquaint- 
ances. He could not but be struck, in spite 
of himself, by the tableau presented to his 
gaze ; but he would not allow himself to be 
turned by it from the legitimate indignation 
which moved him. 

Rose,” he said, sternly, did I not strictly 
forbid you ever to take the child on to the 
stage or even to bring her to the theatre, now 
that it is no longer necessary and she is old 
enough to notice what goes on about her ? ” 

I know, mon returned Rose Lazare, 

in a supplicating tone. I only meant to try 
the clothes on her, but she looked so angelic, 
and Mr. Forrest wanted some more children, 
and ” 

And you thought I was safe in New Eng- 
land, for Heaven knows how long, and you 
could gratify your vanity and put a few more 
paltry sous in your pocket. You are just like 


62 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


all the rest of them. Do you suppose I gave 
you my name ” 

Which I do not bear, monsieur,’* inter- 
rupted Rose, with a faint attempt at defiance. 

But which you will bear, you know very 
well,” said Daniel sharply, and, what is more, 
which the child will bear, in my family and 
before the world. Do you suppose I made 
you my wife, I say, that you might bring up 
my daughter among the same miserable lot 
with which you are implicated ? ” 

Rose Lazare winced, but made no reply. 
She could bear a great deal from this man 
whom she adored ; and, like so many women, 
when a slap was given her on one cheek by 
one she loved, was only too ready to turn the 
other for a similar correction. 

‘‘ Take Helena,” continued Mr. Cameron, to 
Annette, who had re-entered the room, and 
stood transformed into rather a pretty-looking 
French girl in a black alpaca dress, take 
Helena and take off that ridiculous rig, and 
never let me see it again. And you. Rose, get 
your own clothes on ; it is very late and you 
have fooled away too much time already over 


Helena’s history. 


63 


the child. And let me tell you once for all : if 
I ever see my daughter carried on to this mis- 
erable stage again, or even brought within the 
walls of this house without my express per- 
mission, wife or no wife, everything is over 
between us.” 

I will do as you say, mon ami” said his 
wife submissively. 

Besides,” continued Mr. Cameron, after a 
pause, speaking in a milder tone as he watched 
her while she removed the star from her fore- 
head, twisted her hair in a great rope about 
her head, and unclasped her golden zone, you 
came very near falling yourself. Rose. It is 
absurd to give one’s self the possibility of such 
an emotion. We should have had a panic in 
the house, and you a broken limb, or just as 
likely a broken neck.” 

In an instant Rose was at her husband’s side,^ 
and, bending over his hands, pressed theive as 
her lips. aerations 

W ould you have cared. Dan/d childr^ 
asked, in the softest of utterancejie dispo- 
slight foreign lingering upon^i it is d‘ 
of his name, which was in was ’ 


64 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


But Daniel Cameron was not to be mol- 
lified by any female blandishments. He freed 
himself from his wife’s tender clasp and 
replied briefly, Hurry ! ” 

So Rose hurried, and after a few moments 
all four passed out of the stage-entrance, be- 
fore which a carriage awaited them. 

Get in,” said Daniel, as Rose hesitated 
with one foot on the step, turning back to look 
at him inquiringly. 

You are not coming, dear ? ” she asked. 

“ No,” answered Daniel, can’t to-night. I 
have an engagement, and too much to do early 
to-morrow morning. Good-night.” 

He stooped and kissed his wife’s forehead, 
touched lightly with his lips the cheeks and 
mouth of his little daughter, now sleeping 
soundly in Annette’s arms, shut the carriage 
door, and motioned to the coachman to drive 

demam, che'i Daniel,'' said Rose’s soft 
ting back through the fog and the 
that was falling, and he began 
'^r he should not have done 
'e home with the gentle, 


Helena’s history. 


65 


loving Rose, and neglected his engagement 
and his business the next day. 

But it was too late now ; so, hghting a cigar, 
he set off briskly in the direction of his club. 

As he walked along, the events of the past 
few years' rose more vividly than usual before 
his mind, and he asked himself if he had not 
been a consummate fool ; but the innocent 
face of his baby daughter appeared to his 
mental vision, bringing as a reply to all his 
doubts and uncertainties that he had only 
been an honest man and the victim, perhaps, 
of circumstances over which he had had, or 
choose to think he had had, no control. 

Daniel Cameron was the son of a New 
England family of old and un contaminated 
stock, whose daughters were, if not especially 
fair, at least excellent and virtuous, and whose 
sons were brave when there was need of that 
quality, and always upright and honorable as 
well as shrewd. Why, after many generations 
of exemplary conduct in parents and childr<' 
a certain lawless and ungovernable dispo- 
should have appeared in him it is d* 
comprehend ; but that he was ’ 


66 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


to manage/’ his friends and family unani- 
mously agreed. At the close of a stormy 
childhood he entered college, and took his 
degree at the time-honored institution of Har- 
vard University ; then he persuaded his father 
to send him to a German university, and then 
to Paris, where he imbibed much knowledge, 
especially in the ways of the world. He was 
immensely fond of books and had a passion 
for languages both ancient and modern. Peo- 
ple said of him, and with considerable truth, 
that he might make anything of himself if 
he only had a mind,” but though he was 
brilliant, he was lazy. 

After his return from Europe he thought 
of ” the law as a profession, but there was too 
much drudgery about its commencement to 
suit a person of his restless and changeable 
temperament. Then he thought of” medi- 
cine, which presented itself as a more romantic 
and exciting pursuit to his imagination ; but 
‘^ter a trial he professed to doubt the strength 
**=! nerve, and abandoned his drugs and 
ts. Next he thought of ” journal- 
Uy, renouncing that, determined 


HELENA^S HISTORY. 


67 


to enter upon a purely literary career, and to 
win for himself a place of honor among the 
crowned of fame. 

Of course a man of his habits and experi- 
ence could not be expected to live contentedly 
in the quiet New England village where his 
parents and sister had their ancestral home ; 
the city of Boston was too provincial, and the 
unknown West ^^good enough for fellows 
who had to make their fortunes ; his father, 
thank Heaven, could provide him with a* suffi- 
ciently liberal allowance.’’ 

New York was, in his estimation, the only 
spot in America where one could live with 
tolerable ease and comfort ; and in New York 
he accordingly took up his residence, writing 
a little, now and then, in a desultory way, 
occasionally publishing an article or a short 
poem, in a journal or in one of the few mag 
zines then in existence ; sometimes making 
some publisher a translation from one 
many tongues at his command; anc* 
rest, belonging to a club, giving an^’ 
bachelor dinners, playing cards, i 
ing the theatres. In one of the 


68 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


was one evening attracted by the name of 
Rose Lazare figuring rather conspicuously on 
the play-bill. When, afterwards, the owner of 
the name pirouetted before him, he remem- 
bered distinctly having seen her a few years 
before, a young girl of sixteen or seventeen, on 
the boards of a small Parisian theatre. Rose 
Lazare was not remarkable in any branch of 
her profession, though she did a little some- 
thing in almost every theatrical line ; but she 
was very beautiful. She was small and slight, 
her face was a delicate oval, her features reg- 
ular, her eyes soft and dark, and her hair, 
sombre as a raven’s wing, so thick and long 
that it seemed as if her graceful figure must 
bend beneath its weight. She was the child 
of French peasants, and had once worked in 
^‘^'the fields herself ; but at the death of her last 
tem^rviving parent, her mother, a distant relative, 
cine, \v been in the service of a great lady 
and excise knew the world, fancied that some- 
ter a triai^bt be gained from such unusual 
nerve, she persuaded the young girl to 
ts. loj. to Paris, where she found a 
s figurante in a little theatre. 


Helena’s history. 


69 


Here Rose learned to read and write, and, if 
she were not particularly intelligent, neither 
could she be called stupid. Her new sur- 
roundings developed in her a great deal of 
that swift tact which is one of the most envi- 
able qualities of the French, and she was 
blessed with a perfectly sweet and amiable 
disposition. Slowly but surely she rose in her 
profession, till she could command a little 
salary sufficient for her modest needs and those 
of the ancient cousin who remained with her 
until her death, after which time Rose drifted 
with a theatrical company to America. 

Daniel Cameron was immensely struck by 
the young woman’s beauty, which several years 
of the harassing life of the stage had not been 
able to tarnish, but only to mature and perfect. 
It was the easiest thing in the world for him 
to make her acquaintance and pay her his 
court, while Rose returned his advances with 
a passion as sudden and violent as it was 
honest and sincere. She never thought of the 
advantages which might accrue to her from 
the conquest of his affections ; she yielded 
herself utterly to the captivating power of her 


70 


A SOREENTO ROMANCE. 


lover, and required neither promises nor vows. 
Perhaps a more designing conduct on her part 
could not have accomplished what was effected 
by the generous confidence of her love. 
Cameron married her legally and lawfully, and 
a little girl was born to them whom David 
called by his favorite name — Helena. But 
while he felt that he had behaved in an almost 
Quixotically loyal manner towards the woman 
who loved him, he was in constant terror of 
the consequences of his act. His father. 
Squire Cameron, was a man of the most rigid 
principles and the most stubborn New Eng- 
land prejudices. The stage itself was a horror 
and abomination in his eyes, and the human 
beings connected with it the progeny of Satan ; 
while the French nation was, everybody knew, 
wicked and profligate to the last degree, fit 
subjects for the wrath of the Lord. From the 
day when their first Puritan ancestor set foot 
on the New England coast, down to the present 
time, there had never been a taint upon the 
immeasurable respectability of the race, besides 
which the Camerons were one of the few 
inerican families who could trace their lin- 


Helena’s history. 


71 


eage back past our own Colonial times to its 
roots in the old country — English on one side^ 
Scotch on the other, — and they were as proud 
of their descent as a prince might be of his 
royal blood. Daniel Cameron perfectly under- 
stood his father’s pride, and, it must be con- 
fessed, felt a sort of sneaking sympathy with 
it. Besides, who could be certain that the old 
man, in horror at the younger one’s disregard 
for all the traditions which his people held 
most sacred, might not turn against him and 
discard him, only son though he was. Daniel 
did not feel at all sure of the course the old 
gentleman would pursue should his son’s folly 
be disclosed to him. He had already had 
several serious differences with his father, 
knew well the severity of which he was capa- 
ble, and did not care to again incur the storm 
of his wrath. He knew that only by some 
happy stroke of fortune would he ever acquire 
power and wealth ; for he was of too unstable 
a character to attain those desirable ends by 
means of a constant and conscientious applica- 
tion to any given employment. He might 
have said as truly as any man, cannot 


72 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


work, to heg I am ashamed,” and he did not 
like to imagine a future in which his father’s 
support should be withdrawn. So Helena’s 
existence was concealed as much as possible ; 
and when it did become generally known that 
Kose Lazare had a child, he took care not to 
afficJier himself as its father. His way of 
living after his marriage was little changed 
from what it had been before ; and Rose, too, 
lived on in the same little apartment she had 
formerly occupied in company with Annette, 
who had conceived a violent attachment for 
her beautiful countrywoman, and had cast in 
her fortunes with hers. Rose continued to 
act and draw her salary, and what had been 
enough for her sufficed for the baby, too. 

Before her marriage, in spite of the demands 
of her toilette and the expenses of her little 
menage, Rose, with true French frugality, had 
often been able to lay aside a small sum for 
that day which, in the course of her short 
experience, she had often seen arrive for 
others, — when some swift and fatal malady 
blighted the beauty which was all some poor 
creature’s fortune, or her strength had sud- 


Helena’s history. 


73 


denly failed, leaving her defenceless against 
misery and destitution. But now Rose saved 
no more. There were little suppers for Daniel 
when he deigned to come home with her to 
enjoy them, and there were little dinners for 
Daniel on Sunday evenings, which, the theatres 
being closed, he spent with his wife and child. 
But it mattered not : in the old times she had 
had to think for herself and provide for her own 
future ; now the present was assured, and for 
the rest there was Daniel. As for him, it 
humiliated and exasperated him that his wife 
should be earning her own living independ- 
ently of him ; but what could he do ? One of 
the principal causes of a certain irritability 
which showed itself in his temper, and a 
harshness towards Rose, originated from his 
dissatisfaction with the status quo; but he 
would not alter it by confession. His father 
was old — who knew how long he might live ? 
Not that Daniel Cameron desired his father’s 
death, but the best of parents are not immortal, 
and the end would come some time. Or, i^ 
that solemn moment were very long de^ 
perhaps the old man would soften as 


74 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


vanced, and it would be more possible to speak ; 
or he himself might meet with some piece 
of luck which would render him independ- 
ent of his father, or — something might 
happen. 

Meantime, whenever he did make any money 
he did not spend it all on himself, but hast- 
ened to buy some trinket for Rose or Helena, 
or he took Rose to dine in a restaurant — for 
that was her particular passion, to dine in a 
restaurant where there were many glasses and 
shining mirrors. And Rose was content : she 
did not care anything for Daniel’s family ; all 
she wanted was Daniel himself, Daniel kind 
and tender as he could be in his best mood. 
Before their marriage he had explained to her 
his position, and she desired no change in the 
present situation, nor was anxious to be recog- 
nized as his wife in the eyes of the world. 
She was used to the stage, and happy in her 
life, arduous and fatiguing though it often was, 
and she was fond of her companions, with whom 
' sweet disposition made her a great favorite, 
ither women pardoned her beauty because 
ei seemed to think of itj for just as 


Helena’s history. 


75 


only talent is conceited, while genius never is, 
so she was too beautiful to be vain. 

Neither did it make any difference to her 
friends whether she were married or not ; per- 
haps they would not have liked her so well had 
they known that she had a legal claim on a 

real swell,” who, if it were his good pleasure, 
could at any time acknowledge her as his wife 
and make a lady of her. So Rose kept her own 
wise counsel, and everything went on amicably 
between her and her associates, and this was 
another of the many cases where ignorance is 
bliss. 

After the night of her first and only appear- 
ance on any stage, Helena, for a time, remem- 
bered nothing farther. But the blank in her 
recollection was of short duration, for that 
remarkable experience had been as a shock 
bursting her baby intelligence, which soon 
awoke to slumber no more. 

She was never carried to the theatre again, 
and a young girl was hired who took her out 
walking when her mother and Annette were at 
rehearsal, and who sat by her little bed until she 
fell asleep at night. She never again saw her 


76 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


mother in her fairy garments of white and gold, 
but the beatific vision of that memorable even- 
ing never faded from her memory ; and when, 
in later years, she thought of her mother, she 
liked best to recall her as she had seen her 
then. 

For some time nothing was changed in the 
little household ; but on one bitter winter night 
Rose took a severe cold from which she never 
recovered. She struggled as long as possible 
against the insidious malady which attacked her, 
but was finally obliged to succumb and leave 
the stage. 

Helena remembered how first her mother 
used to come home earlier than usual, and 
throw herself exhausted on her bed, from which 
she rose with difficulty when the hour for her 
attendance at the theatre struck ; and then she 
remembered how a day came when she started 
to go as usual, but fell, fainting, on the floor, 
and when Annette and the servants picked her 
up there were red spots on her dress. 

After that she never went out, but lay from 
morning till night on the sofa, watching her 
little daughter play about the room, or often 


Helena’s history. 


77 


calling her to come and nestle in her arms, 
until a hard cough seized her and she was 
obliged to put the child down again. 

At this period the blonde gentleman who had 
visited them from time to time, and who had 
taught her to call him Dan,” came much 
oftener than ever before and she was told to 
address him as papa.” He never spoke 
sternly to her mamma now, as had sometimes 
been his wont ; he used only kind and tender 
words, and there were sometimes tears in his 
blue eyes ; but on his wife’s face lay a sweet 
and gentle smile. Sometimes Helena was sent 
out for fresh air with her young nurse, who now 
waited on her mother, and on Sunday morn- 
ings Annette took her to walk in the square, 
of whose trees they could catch a glimpse from 
the high windows of their little home ; but the 
child liked best staying with her mother, and it 
was a happy time with her. Sometimes indeed 
she felt with a child’s instinct that her pretty 
mamma was suffering, and was grieved in a 
childish way, but her eyes could not see the 
gradual emaciation, the wasting away from day 
to day, and how should she know that the hour 


78 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


was at hand when her mother would leave her 
forever ? 

Shortly after the beginning of Rose’s illness 
Helena’s bed had been moved into Annette’s 
room, Rose fearing to disturb the child’s rest 
with her cough, and one morning, when Annette 
came as usual to dress Helena, her eyes were 
red and swollen, and as she fastened the little 
frock the child felt tears fall upon her cheek. 

What are you crying for, Annette?” she 
asked, but Annette did not answer, except by 
a moist embrace. 

When they entered the little room which 
served for dining-room and parlor, all in one, 
where Rose was wont to lie, her couch was 
empty, and then the door of her bedroom 
opened and papa and a strange man came out. 

Where is mamma ? ” cried Helena, with a 
sudden sense of something wrong ; I want 
mamma.” 

They soothed her with the usual fictions and 
promises, and they took her out of doors and 
bought her bonbons and new toys^ and so 
brought her through the day. But at night 
she wept and would not be comforted or sleep 


Helena’s history. 


79 


until she had received reiterated promises that 
she should see her mother in the morning*. The 
next day she passionately demanded the ful- 
filment of Annette’s word, and greeted her 
attempted evasions with a storm of tears. Cam- 
eron was present at the scene, and Annette 
turned to him with an inquiring gesture. 

Show her her mother,” he said shortly and 
moved away. 

Annette took Helena by the hand and led 
her into her mother’s darkened room. There 
she opened the blind a little, and Helena saw 
her mamma lying on the bed, dressed in a long 
white robe, with her dusky hair falling loosely 
about her, as she had so often worn it during 
the long months of her illness — lying with 
closed eyes, very white and very still. A great 
awe crept over the child’s soul, but she was not 
afraid. May I kiss her ? ” she asked in a 
whisper. 

Very gently,” said Annette, and lifted the 
little girl to Rose’s side. 

Helena stooped and touched her mother’s 
pallid lips with her fresh warm mouth, and as 
she did so a shiver shot through her frame. 


80 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE, 


Then Annette closed the blinds and they 
went out. Helena at the time asked no ques- 
tions, but when she overheard Annette telling 
some one who came to inquire for Rose, that 
she was dead, though she had never heard the 
word before, she knew perfectly well that it 
meant her mother would never open her eyes 
or smile or speak to her again. 

In the afternoon she was sent out of doors 
with the little servant, and when they returned 
the doors and windows were open, her mother’s 
bed empty, and Annette and her father not in 
the house. A sense of desolation swept over 
the poor little thing’s heart. The servants 
could not comfort her. She felt, though she 
could not have put her feelings into words, that 
there was some better consolation than that they 
offered, and she remembered how some one had 
once told her that people who were good at 
last became angels and went to live in the sky ; 
and, standing at the window, she watched the 
clouds floating across the soft spring sky, and 
wondered if her mother were anywhere up 
there,” and if she did not want to be with her 
little girl again. 


Helena’s history. 


81 


A few days afterwards Annette dressed her 
in a new black frock, kissed and cried over her 
a great deal, and then she and her father drove 
to the railway station, and she took her first 
journey in the cars. The transit from the 
city of New York to the State of Massachusetts 
was not in those days a matter of as few hours 
as it is now, and at the end of the railway jour- 
ney there was a short stage ride, so that it was 
already evening when they reached the town of 
L — , and stopped before the large white house 
with green blinds, where Daniel had been 
born. 

The door was locked, and he was obliged to 
lift the heavy brass knocker, which fell, resound- 
ing with a clang. In a moment a shuffle was 
heard in the passage within, and the door was 
opened by an elderly woman bearing an oil-lamp 
in her hand. 

Lord bless me ! ” she exclaimed, as she 
recognized the young man. You, Mr. Daniel, 
so unexpected ? There ain’t nothing wrong, I 
hope ? ’’ 

N — no, Mary; at least not with me. 
Where are they all ? 


82 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


They ’re just fiuishin’ tea ; they ’re very 
late to-night, for the squire had to go up coun- 
try about them pasture lands he wants to sell, 
and he never come home till nigh on to seven 
o’clock. But sakes alive, what have you got 
there ? ” she continued, as, unwrapping his 
cloak, half concealed in which Helena had been 
clinging to his shoulder, Daniel set his little 
daughter down on the ground. A baby, I 
declare 1 ” 

A little girl, Mary, that you must be good 
to and take care of, as you used to of Prue 
and me. I ’ll go into the dining-room and 
face the music. Come with the light ; there ’s 
Egyptian darkness here.” 

He spoke lightly, but it was with an emotion 
so strong as to be almost fear that he entered 
the room where his family were assembled, 
leading Helena by the hand. He left the 
child for a moment, hurrying forward amid a 
chorus of surprised exclamations, to kiss his 
mother and sister, and offer his hand to his 
father. 

What is that?” cried his mother, whose 
eyes were sharper than her husband’s, pointing 


Helena’s history. 


83 


to the tiny figure trembling at the door. Daniel 
stepped back and lifted her on his arm. 

My little daughter/’ he answered, “ and her 
mother, my wife,^' (with a peculiar emphasis 
on the words) is dead.” 

Mrs. Cameron’s hands went up into the air, 
her husband dropped the tea-cup which he was 
in the act of raising to his lips, and they as 
well as their daughter stared at him in speech- 
less amazement, while an exclamation burst 
from the faithful Mary in the background : 

Well, I never ! ” 

Half asleep, bewildered by the change from 
the outer darkness to the lighted room, and 
frightened at the strange faces about her, 
Helena at this juncture began to cry. It was 
a most fortunate diversion. 

Give her something to eat,” said Mrs. 
Cameron, in her usual abrupt manner ; “ the 
child’s half starved.” 

She is tired, too,” said Daniel, and ” — 
^^not used to strangers,” he was going to add, 
but checked himself. Whose fault was it that 
Helena did not know her nearest relatives ? 

Don’t cry, dear,” he said soothingly. 


84 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


stroking the child’s hair ; you shall have some 
nice supper; some warm milk out of Aunt 
Prue’s silver mug, and some buttered toast.” 

What is her name, Dan ? ” asked his sis- 
ter. 

Helena.” 

Humph,” said his mother. It was not a 
family name. 

How old is she ? She does n’t look more 
than three or four years old.” 

She is just five,” replied her father. 

Helena shall sit by her Auntie Prue,” 
said that lady in a caressing tone. 

Quick, Mary, make a high chair for 
Helena.” 

The old servant placed, upon the highest 
chair the room afforded, Josephus and the fam- 
ily Bible, and upon this species of throne the 
little girl was elevated. Aunt Prue’s silver 
mug was laid away with other relics of her 
childhood, but the cambric tea,” as Prue 
called it, a mild decoction of milk and hot 
water, tasted very good out of a tea-cup, and 
buttered toast was a new feature in Helena’s 
experience, and possessed all the charm of 


Helena’s history. 


85 


novelty. Room was made for Daniel, who 
seated himself by Helena, and as he ate his 
supper talked in a quick, excited way of the 
day’s journey, of New York, of the weather — 
anything and everything seeming preferable to 
the awkwardness of silence. 

No one else said much, but his mother inter- 
rupted him in the midst of an involved sentence 
with the remark, Why, she ’s a regular carrot- 
head.” 

She has lovely hair, if it red,” said Pru- 
dence, smoothing it admiringly. 

Daniel hastily despatched his meal and rose, 
taking the sleepy child in his arms. She had 
better be put to bed at once, Prue,” he said, 
and I ’ll come with you. She is naturally a 
little shy at first.” 

Mary led the way with the lamp, and Pru- 
dence and Daniel followed, Mrs. Cameron con- 
tenting herself with giving her grandchild a 
good-night kiss, for she stood not a little in 
awe of her lord and master, and was very un- 
certain as to how he might regard any further 
demonstrations on her part. 

But, if the truth were told. Squire Cameron 


86 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


would have desired nothing better than to re- 
lieve his son of his light burden, and carry the 
child upstairs himself ; for the bright-haired, 
pale-faced little creature in her black dress had 
at once struck a hidden, tender chord in the 
old man’s heart, and he fancied he could trace a 
resemblance between her and his favorite sister 
who had died in childhood. 

That is how she came by her red hair,” he 
thought to himself. 

Meanwhile the others put Helena to bed, 
and hardly had her golden head touched the 
pillow' when she was asleep. 

Her father and aunt stood at the bedside 
watching her. 

All the beauty of the Cameron family had 
fallen to Daniel’s share, Prue’s only good feature 
being her lovely blue eyes, like Daniel’s own. 
For the rest she was too tall, too square-shoul- 
dered, too colorless as to complexion, and of 
that almost painful thinness which character- 
izes a certain type of American women ; but 
she looked almost beautiful as she stood gazing 
at the sleeping figure of her brother’s child. 
She was older than Daniel and had lost her 


Helena’s history. 


87 


lover in her youth ; but now the patient 
expression her features always wore was lighted 
with a sweet joy at the expectation of what 
warmth and comfort this little visitor might 
bring into her lonely life. 

For, of course, Daniel meant to leave the 
child with her ; she knew him too well to doubt 
that. 

Daniel turned from his contemplation of 
his child to look at his sister, and there shot 
through his heart one of those sudden thrills of 
affection which even the most indifferent will 
occasionally feel in the presence of relationship 
and the close ties of blood. 

Besides, he had been much moved by Rose’s 
death, and was in a softer mood than usual. 

Prue,” he said gently, “ you were always a 
good sister to me, and I am sure you will do all 
you can for Helena.” 

I will try to be a mother to her, Dan,” 
Prudence answered. She is a sweet creature, 
and I am sure her mother must have been a 
good woman.” 

She was a Frenchwoman and an actress,” 
said Daniel, enumerating these awful qualities 


88 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


as quickly as possible, but she was a very 
amiable girl, and very fond of me.” 

That is enough for me,” said Prue, 
stoutly. 

Rose had not much education,” Daniel 
continued, and I have not had time to trouble 
myself about the child. I daresay you will find 
her very ignorant.” 

I will teach her,” said Prudence. 

The Camerons were not a demonstrative 
family, — New England families are not, as a 
rule, given to much display of affection, — but 
Daniel put his arm about his sister, and Prue 
leaned her head against his shoulder and tears 
gathered in her eyes. But she hastily wiped 
them away, saying in a firm voice, Come, let 
us go downstairs.” 

They went, Daniel relieved and strengthened 
at having enlisted his sister’s sympathies on 
his side, and trusting much to the impression 
Helena might have produced upon her grand- 
parents. 

And now, sir,” said Mr. Cameron, when 
Daniel and Prudence entered the parlor, 
where their elders awaited them, will you 


HELENA S HISTORY. 


89 


be good enough to inform us what all this 
o 

means r 

Thus adjured, Daniel began a recital of his 
acquaintance and marriage with Rose, and, 
although he could not conceal the facts of her 
nationality and profession, softening as much 
as possible the more objectionable features of 
her history, and quite keeping out of sight the 
enormity that she had ever danced on the 
stage. He dwelt much on the amiability of 
her character, her faithfulness and affection 
for him, and the moral obligation under which 
he had felt himself towards her. He knew 
that much was gained could he touch the old 
gentleman’s sense of honor. Not a word from 
any one of his auditors interrupted his narra- 
tive, and at its close profound silence reigned. 

Finally Mr. Cameron rose, and, taking a bed- 
room candle, said coldly, without looking at 
any one in particular, Good-night,” and left 
the room. His wife followed him, and there 
was nothing left for Prue and Daniel but to 
separate for the night. 

On the following morning Mr. Cameron re- 
turned his son’s greeting by a mere inclination 


90 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


of the head, and though Daniel kept as much 
as possible in his father’s presence the old gen- 
tleman remained persistently silent. 

1 can’t stand this,” said Daniel to his 
sister, after their early dinner. If you will 
have Sally harnessed and drive me to the 
station, I can get up to Boston for the night, 
and on to New York to-morrow. I have some 
work to do.” And so he fortunately had had 
for some few months, though, even with this 
help, he had incurred several debts, owing to 
the expenses of Rose’s illness. 

When the carriage was ready he sought his 
father again. Prudence has told you, I 
believe, father, that I think I had better be off 
to-day. I suppose I may leave Helena under 
the protection of your roof ? ” 

Prudence teUs me that she desires to bring 
up your daughter. I shall not oppose her 
wish,” said the old man sternly. 

Daniel felt sorely irritated, but struggled to 
conceal it. 

Thank you, father. I shall feel easy about 
her,” and he held out his hand. 

Mr. Cameron hesitated a moment, and then 


Helena’s history. 


91 


took the proffered hand in a limp sort of clasp, 
saying coldly, Good-by.” 

Daniel looked forward with considerable 
trepidation to the day on which he was accus- 
tomed to receive his allowance, but the money 
came as usual, and then he knew that his father 
had, if not forgiven him, at least concluded not 
to visit upon him the dreadful punishment of 
the withdrawal of his support, — and with this 
he was content. 

His son’s revelations had doubtless inflicted 
a severe wound upon old Mr. Cameron’s pride ; 
but the mischief was irremediable, the objec- 
tionable wife was dead, and the most charming 
little girl in the world was left as a compensa- 
tion. 

Squire Cameron was a severe-looking man, 
always dressed in black, with a high collar 
whose points imprisoned his chin, and a stock. 
His dark hair, in which scarcely a silver thread 
was to be seen, was brushed above his ears. His 
carriage was erect and his movements slow and 
precise. Almost every one feared him, for he 
had the reputation of possessing a character as 
obstinate and unrelenting as it was honorable 
and upright. 


92 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


But he made himself Helena’s slave, and she 
ruled him with a royal will. By the hour to- 
gether he would hold her on his knees in the 
horsehair-covered rocking-chair, which became 
transformed into a fiery steed bearing them 
into space ; or he showed her pictures and told 
her stories, and took her with him about the 
country until the child was almost as well 
known as the ancient chaise and the bay horse 
he had driven for years. He never came home 
from any expedition on which she could not 
accompany him without bringing her a present, 
and his pockets were always filled with barley- 
candy, lozengers,” and small sweet biscuit 
that she liked. He never spoke a harsh word 
to her, always took her part if she were blamed, 
and even when she once scratched the face of 
a little visitor knew she “ did not mean to do 
it” and begged her off from punishment. 
And in return for this devotion Helena was 
very fond of her grandfather ; fonder even 
than of her Aunt Prue, who taught and cared 
for her, and in her way worshipped her also. 
As her father had predicted, she was found 
wof ully ignorant in some respects : she could 


Helena’s history. 


93 


not say her prayers, and had exceedingly misty 
notions of who made her; so she was speedily 
instructed in the first principles of the Christian 
religion and taught to repeat Now I lay 
me.” But although her religious instruction 
had been so neglected, Helena was more profi- 
cient in some branches of knowledge than her 
father dreamed. On Sunday mornings, when 
the others went to church, she was left in 
charge of the faithful Mary, who, sitting before 
the open fire, and turning the spit of the large 
tin-kitchen by means of a long wooden handle, 
read the New Testament aloud. One day Mary 
miscalled a word, and Helena, whose eyes were 
always fastened on the book, pointed to the 
place with her tiny finger and corrected her 
nurse. 

Sakes alive ! ” exclaimed Mary, “ who 
learned you to read ? ” 

I don’t know,” answered the little girl. 

You read to me, then,” said the servant; 
and so Helena did, stumbling a little at some 
of the longer words, but acquitting herself 
remarkably well. Her chief enjoyment had 
always been to listen to reading and then, with 


94 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


a child’s exact memory, to go over the stories 
by herself, distinguishing them by the pictures ; 
and thus, unconsciously to those about her, she 
had acquired the first and most necessary of 
accomplishments. When the family returned 
they were greeted by the announcement of this 
discovery, and when she had been tried and 
not found wanting, Helena was immediately 
presented with a bright live-dollar gold piecfe 
by her delighted grandfather. Shortly after 
this she was allowed to go to meeting ” 
with her elders, and her pride at this mark 
of consideration on their part helped her 
bravely through the dull length of the morning 
service. Not unfrequently in after life, in glo- 
rious cathedrals, amid the pomps and splendors 
of the Romish ritual, Helena remembered those 
summer Sunday mornings of her childhood ; 
— the church with its high pews and bare 
whitewashed walls, the ladies in big bonnets 
and black silk suits, the gentle rustle of the 
palm-leaf fans, and the soft, sleepy air that blew 
through the open windows, bringing the few 
outdoor sounds to mingle with the preacher’s 
words. In spite of the longer service, Helena 


Helena’s history. 


95 


liked the Communion Sundays best : the oblong 
bits of bread bad a peculiar fascination for her. 
She always wondered who was hungry and bow 
many pieces each person would take, and when 
her grandfather, rather to the scandal of his 
neighbors, shared his morsel with her, she con- 
sidered it delicious food. One lady who sat in 
the pew in front of her afforded Helena much 
mental occupation. She wore a red India shawl, 
and had a habit of covering all her face with it, 
except a corner of her right eye, through which 
she peeped at her fellow-worshippers. J ust as 
if we could n’t see that she ’s peeking,” thought 
Helena, but she was never weary of watching 
her and wondering how often she would repeat 
the performance. 

Trivial things these, but these years formed 
a calm, sunny period in Helena’s life, to which, 
in the exciting, restless existence she afterwards 
came to lead, she sometimes looked back with 
a sort of gratitude. Nor was their influence 
upon her character ever quite obliterated ; her 
career might have been even fuller of error and 
extravagance than it became had she not had 
some Puritan blood in her veins and been sub- 


96 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


jected, during the first years of her opening 
intelligence, to a Puritan education. 

So it is with all of us who have been born 
and bred within the confines of New England. 
W e may prefer another civilization ; we may 
laugh at the prejudices and narrownesses of our 
old home ; we may change our habits and modes 
of thought ; we may become as aliens and stran- 
gers in our native land, — but wherever we go 
we carry with us certain sentiments and tradi- 
tions which are as a buckler in times of trouble, 
as an anchor amid the storms of fate. Let us 
not forget, then, 0 my brothers and sisters, we 
who leave the parent nest to form for our- 
selves new ties and new associations on foreign 
shores, in the Old World or the New, to turn 
sometimes to thank Heaven for New England 
and Plymouth Rock. 

Helena’s life with her grandparents lasted 
five years, and then her grandfather died. She 
and her aunt were washing the breakfast dishes 
one morning, according to the praiseworthy 
custom of New England housekeepers, when a 
servant appeared at the dining-room door with 
a frightened face, and called Miss Prudence.” 


Helena’s history. 


97 


Prudence went, and a whispered conference 
ensued. Helena/’ said her aunt, at last, in 
an awed tone, you must finish without 
me.” She hesitated a moment and then 
added : Your grandfather is dead.” 

The old gentleman had been ailing for some 
days; he had risen that morning at his usual 
early hour, then said he felt poorly and 
would lie down for a while. When his wife, 
some time later, had gone to speak to him, she 
had found him lifeless and already cold. He 
had died of an affection of the heart. 

Helena knew now what death meant, and 
as, in obedience to her aunt’s instructions, she 
mounted on a footstool and began to wash the 
remaining tea*cups with the long-handled mop, 
great tears rolled down her cheeks and fell 
into the basin of hot suds before her. 

Since Daniel Cameron had left his daughter 
in his sister’s charge he had only returned two 
or three times to visit them. He had been in 
Europe for some time, and travelling in his own 
country, living as a rule a sort of hand-to- 
mouth ” life, often in debt, and growing more 
incapable of settling to anything with every 


98 A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 

added year. At the time of his father’s death 
he happened to be in New York, and, of course, 
eame on to the funeral. He stayed in the old 
homestead for several weeks, attending to the 
many matters requiring his personal supervis- 
ion, with some impatience but sufficient energy. 
But he was dissatisfied with the provisions of 
his father’s will (when was there ever a will 
which satisfied every one ?), quarrelled with his 
sister because she upheld their father, knew 
that he was unreasonable, and consequently 
grew more unreasonable than ever. Finally, 
he took it into his head that Helena was receiv- 
ing a very narrow education, professed himself 
much displeased that, as children will, she had 
forgotten the French language, which, thanks 
to her mother and Annette, she had spoken 
fluently at five years of age, declared that 
nobody could be taught anything decently in 
this country, and at last announced his inten- 
tion of taking her to Europe, whither, now 
that he was in possession of some portion of 
his father’s property, he meant to return for 
an indefinite time, and placing her at school 
in France. 


Helena’s history. 


99 


It was a hard blow to Prudence, and a 
subject of regret to the old lady, though' she 
was less fond of children than her daughter, 
and sympathized less with this particular one 
than her husband had done ; but she knew it 
was useless to oppose Daniel when he took a 
fancy,” as she called it ; and Prudence’s whole 
life had been spent in the practice of those 
much-extolled virtues. Renunciation and Resig- 
nation ; so with few remonstrances, but an 
aching heart, she renewed and freshened 
Helena’s wardrobe and prepared her for the 
journey. 

Perhaps it was very ungrateful, but Helena 
did not feel sorry to go. Her grandfather’s 
death left a great void in her heart which she 
was eager to fill with something new, and her 
father, for whom she had a great admiration, 
fired her imagination with accounts of the 
pleasures of a sea-voyage and of the wonders 
to be found on the other side of the water. 

Father and daughter sailed on a large 
packet plying between Boston and Liverpool, 
and Helena felt some sharp pangs of remorse 
and grief as she saw her aunt’s tears, which 


100 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


that lady could not control on bidding her 
good-by. But the pangs were soon forgotten. 
Helena proved herself an excellent sailor and 
became a great favorite with all on board. 
While the voyage lasted everything went well. 
Every one, from the captain to the stewards, 
relieved Cameron of the care of his daughter, 
and he congratulated himself on having 
brought her with him. But by the time they 
had travelled leisurely through England, and 
arrived in Paris, he was heartily tired of being 
fettered with a child ; of finding himself obliged 
to arrange his journeys to suit her powers of 
endurance, and of being forced to stay in at 
night because he could not leave her alone in 
hotels. So after a few days in Paris, during 
which time he showed her some of the fine 
sights he had promised, her father placed her 
in a convent recommended to him as an excel- 
lent educational institution, and, once assured 
of her well-being, as one might say, forgot her. 
For three years Helena lived with the sisters, 
and it was the most miserable period of her 
life. They were kind and gentle ; but, accus- 
tomed as she had been to almost absolute 


Helena’s history. 


101 


liberty, the restraint of school life was intoler- 
able to her. Nor was she used to the compan- 
ionship of children j their numbers confused 
and bewildered her; she did not know their 
games ; she could not enter into their feelings. 
During her residence in the convent she made 
no intimate friends. With a natural prefer- 
ence for the society of older persons, fostered 
by the life she had hitherto led, she attached 
herself to two or three of the nuns, one of 
whom had a beautiful voice and taught the 
children music. These lessons and the Vesper 
services, at which the nuns sang sweetly, were 
what she enjoyed most ; and the musical sister, 
Anastasie, did all in her power to render the 
young girl’s life less lonely and unhappy. 
But she dared not show much preference, and 
her sympathy had to be of a negative sort. 

Helena never disclosed to her relatives in 
America how much she disliked her surround- 
ings; a feeling of mingled pride and shame 
withheld her ; but when she wrote to her father 
at first she was always imploring him to take 
her away. His answers were full of vague 
promises with which he endeavored to quiet 


102 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


her, though, indeed, he often did intend to 
fulfil them, had not something always happened 
to prevent. First it was a journey in Spain ; 
then he fell ill of fever in the South, and after 
his recovery was obliged to spend some months 
in Switzerland in order to thoroughly re-estab- 
lish his health. Then Mrs. Cameron died and 
he went to America ; and so Helena waited 
and hoped and despaired, until habit had 
lightened a little the yoke of her existence, 
and she had acquired patience and endurance, 
besides the ordinary branches of school educa- 
tion and a thorough knowledge of the French 
language, which she learned for the second 
time with extreme facility, and spoke with an 
admirable accent, or, what is better, no accent 
at all. Finally, at the close of the third year, 
she was told that a gentleman wished to see her 
in the parlor, and the good-natured sister who 
called her and accompanied her thither smiled 
significantly. Helena thought it was a certain 
friend of her father’s who had been delegated to 
look after her occasionally, and with whose fam- 
ily she had spent one memorable vacation ; but 
what was her surprise, and how her color came 


HELENA S HISTORY. 


103 

and went when in the tall, blonde gentleman 
who rose to meet her she recognized her father. 

Daniel Cameron was a trifle paler and 
thinner than formerly, and his face wore a 
look of premature old age ; but he was other- 
wise unchanged. He was as much surprised 
at his daughter’s appearance as she had been 
to see him. Helena had always been a pretty 
child, and had inherited her mother’s regular 
features ; but her father was unprepared for 
such rare beauty as she now possessed. She 
had developed young, and although she was. 
only between thirteen and fourteen years of 
age, her figure had shaped itself into lovely 
curves, and her hair had darkened a little, and, 
gathered into a loose net, fell upon her shoul- 
ders in a rich auburn mass which would have 
been the delight of Titian and his followers. 

Her father kissed her with some confusion 
of manner, and placed a chair for her beside 
his own. The more he talked with her the 
better pleased he became. That she was 
exceedingly intelligent he perceived in the first 
five minutes, and the very repression of the 
convent discipline had given a subdued soft- 


104 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


ness to her manner which seemed to him 
indescribably charming. He had come there 
with very wavering intentions, — uncertain 
whether to withdraw her speedily from the 
convent, or to put her ofP once more with 
vague promises, and leave her to complete her 
education where she was. But he had grown 
weary — not of wandering, but of wandering 
alone. He had tasted everything this world has 
to ofPer, and some of its delights had begun to 
turn to ashes on his tongue. He felt he would 
like, not a fixed dwelling-place and roof-tree 
— he could never more endure to be fettered 
to one spot, — but a life wherein there should 
he some flavor of domesticity, some person 
who would regard his interests and care for 
his comfort. He had proposed to Prudence 
to come abroad and reassume the charge of 
Helena, the three to travel or live together as 
inclination might dictate ; but Prudence had 
refused. Her brother had deeply wounded 
her by so abruptly separating her from Helena, 
and she was unwilling to submit herself to his 
further caprices. Her lot was cast in her own 
country and among her old friends. 


Helena's history. 


105 


But as Daniel conversed with his daughter 
it gradually dawned upon him that this fair 
young girl, so refined and intelligent, and 
apparently so mature, was the last crowning 
blessing reserved by Providence for the even- 
ing of his life. So he told her that he had 
come to take her away, and that they would 
go as soon as she could put her things 
together. A great flush spread over Helena’s 
face as she rose : I will go and get ready at 
once,” she said. Her father had expected an 
effusion of delight and gratitude, but he rather 
respected his daughter the more for her calm- 
ness. She felt aggrieved, and, after all, why 
should she be grateful for what had been 
promised her so often as to become her due? 
The Superior was called, and accounts settled, 
Helena’s little packing was soon accomplished, 
the farewells given and received, and in less 
than an hour she and her father were driving 
through the Parisian streets to a hotel in the 
Kue de Kivoll. 

And now began another phase of Helena’s 
career, more brilliant than the preceding ones. 
Daniel Cameron had sufficient sense of justice 


106 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


to admit to himself that his daughter had 
reasonable and legitimate cause for dissatisfac- 
tion with him, so he set himself seriously to 
the conquest of her affections ; and as he could 
he very fascinating when he chose, he soon 
succeeded in winning from her something of 
that enthusiastic admiration which Rose had 
formerly lavished so unreservedly upon him. 
Now, too, he was not shackled by his daugh- 
ter’s presence. If he chose to be away at 
dinner or in the evening, she could be served 
in her room ; after which he knew she would 
employ herself with a book, and then go 
quietly to bed and to sleep. 

But he soon cared less and less for enjoy- 
ments in which she could not participate ; he 
preferred dining with her in the brilhant Paris 
restaurants, or taking her to the theatres and 
opera, all of which things she saw and heard 
for the first time, enjoying them with a keen 
delight. They also spent many hours in the 
Louvre, and made numerous excursions in 
the vicinity of Paris, besides visiting all the 
museums and places of interest in the city 
itself. 


HELENA S HISTORY. 


107 


But this was only a little preparatory play, 
her father told her, before they went to work. 

I want you, my dear, to know the other prin- 
cipal languages of Europe as well as you do 
French, and to do that there is no means but a 
residence in the countries themselves.’’ 

So they went to Germany, and though 
Daniel did not prefer that country, yet by the 
aid of unlimited beer and music he managed 
to exist there until Helena had become profi- 
cient in the tongue. A similar process of edu- 
cation was then undergone in Italy, and there 
Daniel loved to linger, — in the city of flowers, 
with its galleries and mediaeval reminiscences 
and its enchanting views ; amid the magnificent 
monuments and soul-stirring memories of the 
queen city, Rome ; and on the beautiful shores 
of the Mediterranean and Adriatic. 

But it was not enough for Daniel that his 
daughter should speak and write the chief lan- 
guages of Europe so perfectly as to be invariably 
taken for a native of whatever country she 
happened to be in : he desired her to have a 
thorough acquaintance with the literature of 
each land, and he chose for her without regard 


108 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


to such works as are usually put into the hands 
of young people, and especially young girls, 
but everything that contained the best thought 
of the best writers, — the masterpieces of style 
and the crowning glories of human genius. 

And Helena devoured both poetry and prose 
with a keen appreciation and intelligent delight 
which rendered her a most agreeable compan- 
ion for her father, who loved to talk about 
books and to recall, in his daughter’s opinions, 
the enthusiasms of his own youth. Finally he 
took a fancy to teach her Greek and Latin, 
and was for a long time so interested in the 
task that, before he wearied of it, Helena had 
become a tolerable scholar in even the more dif- 
ficult of those languages. I have found my 
vocation at last, Helena,” he said laughingly to 
his daughter. “ I was evidently intended to 
be a schoolmaster to little girls. How I should 
have hated them, though, if they had been stu- 
pid, and not bright like you, my bonnie lassie ! ” 

Another bond between the two was their 
mutual love for music. Cameron knew music 
theoretically, and was as gopd a critic as could 
be easily found ; but he was deficient in the 


HBLENA^S HISTORY. 


109 


technical faculty : he played no instrument, 
and he had early lost his good baritone voice. 

Helena, however, both played and sang, and 
when they happened to possess a local habita- 
tion for a few months, a piano was its first and 
most indispensable article of furniture. But 
Helena’s education was not all ornamental. 
She learned history too, in the easiest and 
most delightful manner, in the spots where its 
wonderful events had transpired ; amid the tan- 
gible records which have been preserved for 
us, and which render the past real and vivid 
to a degree which those who have never left 
America can hardly comprehend ; and wander- 
ing hither and thither from north to south, 
from east to west, she knew Europe thoroughly. 

In their errant Bohemian life they were 
naturally much alone ; but too much solitude 
and dependence on themselves were narrowing, 
Daniel said, and every once in a while they 
must take a plunge into society. He chose 
their acquaintances, less with regard to their 
morality or officially accredited social position 
than to their breeding and culture, and Helena 
was introduced into some circles and imbibed 


110 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


some ideas at which her Puritan ancestors 
would have turned over in their graves with 
horror, could they have known with what com- 
panions their degenerate descendants associated. 
But, on the other hand, she saw many brilliant 
men and women, and felt the vivifying influ- 
ence of strong minds of various nationalities ; 
and there was nothing Cameron hated so 
uncompromisingly as vulgarity ; from that at 
least she was preserved. In all the years of 
her girlhood with her father, only one cloud 
ever obscured their horizon, and that was the 
insufficiency of the almighty dollar. Between 
the periods of his father’s and mother’s death 
Daniel had pretty well comsumed capital as 
well as interest, the share left him by his father’s 
will ; and, when Mrs. Cameron died, the estate, 
which had suftered from the want of a man to 
manage it, was found to have decreased in 
value, and less was left to be divided between 
Daniel and Prudence than had been hoped 
and expected. 

Daniel took his portion as much as possible 
in stocks and shares — anything most convert- 
ible into ready money, and Prudence was left 


Helena’s history. 


Ill 


with the old house and the lands about it, which, 
valued as one half the property, really yielded 
a much smaller income than Daniel’s share. 
But she was used to sacrificing herself, as we 
already know, and only too willing to avoid 
any further cause of contention with her 
brother. Besides, she hoped that it was only 
giving to Helena at once what would ultimately 
have become hers. 

A piece of real estate awarded to Daniel he 
sold at a sacrifice in order to be enabled to 
leave America more quickly ; and, with the 
proceeds of the sale in his pocket, had felt in 
quite a flourishing condition when he first took 
Helena to live with him. However, he did not 
reinvest, but, with a sort of childish pleasure in 
actual money which had always been one of his 
great weaknesses, kept on spending and spend- 
ing till there was little left to spend ; so that 
while, in the beginning of her life with her 
father, everything had been done on so sump- 
tuous a scale that Helena had supposed him to 
be a very rich man, the time came when she 
discovered her mistake. 

Old Mr. Cameron, who knew his son well 


112 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE, 


enough to foresee, in a measure, the future 
state of affairs, had left a certain sum to Helena, 
the interest of which was to be expended on 
her education, and with which her expenses 
had, in fact, been paid until Daniel took her 
away from school. This sum Daniel could not 
touch, nor could Helena herself have control 
over the principal until she reached twenty- 
five years of age. The interest of this they 
could depend on ; but what had been ample 
for the expenses of one young girl was a 
poor pittance for two persons of Daniel’s and 
Helena’s tastes, and one quarter’s money was 
always gone long before the next was due. 
Cameron almost never worked now, but he got 
into debt in half the cities of Europe. He 
speculated, or his friends did for him, with 
various degrees of success and ill-luck, and he 
at last undertook to mend his decrepit fortunes 
at the gaming-tables, of which, before the Prus- 
sian rule, there were so many in the north of 
Europe. For a time he was ashamed to tell 
Helena that he played ; but there was too much 
camaraderie between them for him to conceal 
anything from her long. 


HELENA S HISTORY. 


113 


When Helena knew it, she wanted to try for 
herself ; and she won, as they say beginners 
always do, the Devil taking particular delight 
in baiting well the hook with which to catch 
the weak and unwary. Four thousand francs 
Helena threw into her father’s lap one evening 
when ne had missed her for some time, and 
was sitting languidly wondering how he could 
extricate himself from the tight place in which 
he happened to be, everything seeming to go 
against him just then, — pouring down upon 
him a shower of gold. 

Cameron kissed the girl’s flushed cheeks and 
her little hot hands, and they went out to- 
gether and ordered supper. The next morn- 
ing they paid their hotel-bill and started on a 
journey they had contemplated and been on 
the point of abandoning. But Helena was 
never so fortunate again, and Cameron never 
became a confirmed gambler, whose passion for 
the vice per se is so great that he cannot leave 
the tables. He played soberly and to win, and 
when the luck was against him stopped and 
got on as best he could till there came some 
new turn in the wheel of fortune. And, after 


114 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


all, this uQcertain life, though at times irksome, 
had its advantages in Helena’s eyes. There 
was an excitement about it, a constant demand 
upon one’s wit and activity which she would 
have missed in a more regulated existence. 
Then, as Cameron said, in Europe you can 
live like nabobs, or you can live on nothing a 
year ; so when they were in funds they lived 
like nabobs, and when the stocking was empty 
they went into all sorts of queer little country 
places, where board and lodging were to be 
had for a song, travelling thither in third-class 
railway carriages, country wagons, and cheap 
diligences, and getting many a glimpse into 
the life of the people of the different nations, 
such as most foreigners never obtain. It was 
at these times that Cameron devoted himself 
most assiduously to his daughter’s education, 
and Helena was not sure that she did not 
prefer these periods of her existence to the 
more opulent ones. 

Of course father and daughter could not 
travel so constantly from one end of Europe to 
the other without becoming known in many 
cities and watering-places, and without meeting 


Helena’s history. 


115 


with many persons who were struck with the 
beauty of the latter. To many foreigners even 
the small portion to which they discovered 
that Helena could lay claim seemed a re- 
spectable dowry, and numerous were the offers 
of marriage which Cameron received for her 
from this class. Then there were some eccen- 
tric Englishmen and some brave-hearted young 
Americans willing to take her with nothing at 
all ; the former because they had enough for 
both, and were inflamed by her grace and 
beauty ; the latter because they were madly in 
love with their charming countrywoman, and 
felt that to toil for her, in the sweat of their 
brows, from morn till eve, would be their 
happiest lot. 

But they were one and all refused. Cameron 
was in no hurry to part with his daughter. He 
had determined that, when he was forced to do 
so, it should be by reason of some exceptionally 
brilliant marriage from which solid advantages 
would accrue to both herself and him. Helena 
felt no special inclination towards matrimony, 
thought young men insipid, and was too well 
aware of the guile of older ones to wish to 


116 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


trust herself to their mercies, and she loved 
her father with |an affection so intense and 
absorbing that the thought of separation 
from him was agony. But finally, at a time 
when the glory of the Second Empire was at its 
height, they happened to be spending a winter 
in Paris, and were participating to a consider- 
able extent in those fetes and gayeties with 
which the iniquitous government strove to 
satisfy the insatiable appetite for pleasure of 
its satellites, and to stifle the people’s discon- 
tent. Here a former acquaintance of Cam- 
eron’s, with whom he had lately formed a 
closer intimacy, was of much service to them, 
causing them to be presented at the Tuileries, 
and procuring them invitations to several im- 
perial entertainments. This man, whose name 
was Raimond, of low origin, clever and unscru- 
pulous, had acquired a prominent position in 
his native province, having been one of the 
first to uphold Louis Napoleon and the coup 
d’Hat, and lending all his influence to the 
imperial party in the ensuing elections. He 
had been rewarded, as such men often were, 
by the confidence of Napoleon III., a position 


Helena’s history. 


117 


under government, and the title of baron ; and 
he had grown very rich, like so many of his 
fellows. 

Raimond often came to the apartment which 
the Camerons had hired in the newer quarter 
of Paris. He was always ready to lend money 
to Cameron, or do him any service whatever. 
He entertained them with the current Parisian 
gossip, or had long conversations with him on 
the state of France and its future possibilities. 
He believed firmly in the Empire and its con- 
tinuance. 

To Helena he showed an almost exaggerated 
deference and respect, mingled with a sort of 
subdued admiration ; but she never thought of 
him as a suitor, although likely enough her 
father did. However that may have been, 
Cameron appeared one day before his daughter 
with rather a serious face. 

I have something important to say to you, 
child,” he began. 

T hope it is no more money trouble, Dan,” 
she answered. When they were alone she 
often returned to the familiar address of her 
babyhood, and it always pleased and amused 
her father. 


118 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


he said, are getting on famously 
just now, you know; besides, whenever there 
is anything wrong Raimond is ready to put it 
right for me. He ’s not a bad fellow, Raimond, 
eh, Helena?” 

“ No, he does not seem to be,” said Helena 
carelessly. 

Well, then,” said Cameron, taking his 
subject at a plunge, he wants to marry you.” 

Marry me ! ” the girl cried. 

“ There is nothing very wonderful about 
that,” continued her father ; plenty of others 
have wanted to before him, and if you had any 
vanity in your composition you would have 
seen it long ago ; but you are just like your 
mother about that : she never could be made 
vain, and no more can you. Have you any 
objection to Raimond, my little Helena?” 

N — no,” said Helena, hesitatingly, I 
don’t know that I have. I don’t care anything 
about him.” 

“ No, I don’t suppose you do, but I don’t sup- 
pose either that you ever particularly expected 
to marry for love. It is a common American 
practice, I know; but you are really more 


Helena’s history. 


119 


European than American, and you have had 
experience enough to know that people marry 
for a great many other things than love every 
day. Besides, it is an open question whether 
love matches are the happiest after all. I very 
much doubt it, and if it comes to the question 
of affection, I flatter myself that my little 
Helena will never care for anybody quite as 
much as for her old father.” 

Cameron’s voice trembled a little as he spoke 
these words. Helena rose from her seat, went 
to her father’s side and, putting her arms 
round him, kissed his blonde moustache. For 
a moment the two remained embraced ; then 
Cameron put his daughter gently away. 

Let us look at the pros and cons of it, my . 
love,” he said, taking her hand in his when she 
had drawn her chair to his side, and marking 
his points with his forefinger upon her rosy 
palm. In the first place, he cancels my debts 
to him, — and they have reached a pretty large 
figure, my child, if the truth must be told ; in 
the second place, instead of requiring anything 
with you, as most of these foreign fellows do,, 
he settles on you a handsome sum which neither 


120 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


he nor any one else can ever touch, from now 
to the time of kingdom come. And he does 
these things because he has never seen any one 
^ si belle, si ravissaiite,^ in a word, any one so 
fitted to carry out certain shrewd ideas he 
entertains, as my little girl. He is not wildly 
in love with you, Helena. So much the better, 
I think for obvious reasons, but he admires you 
immensely and has a respect for you, with 
which, he says, and I believe him, no other 
woman has ever inspired him. He is on the 
point of buying a great hotel in the Champs 
Ely sees, and he wants a brilliant woman as its 
mistress. He is an intensely ambitious man ; 
his political position he has been able to form 
for himself, his social position a woman must 
help form for him. He sees some of his com- 
rades going ahead of him in this respect, and 
it annoys him beyond measure. It is a weak 
point, you think ? Yes, so much the better. 
A man must have his weak points to be easily 
managed ; if I had not had mine, your sway 
would have been more difficult to maintain, my 
dear. In the contract which will be formed 
between you, that is, of course, if you accept 


Helena’s history. 


121 


him, he will bring you wealth and the oppor- 
tunity of a position ; you will bring him 
beauty, accomplishments, and savoir-faire to aid 
him to attain the position he desires. It is a 
mutual thing — a matter of give and take. 
One strong point in his favor with me is that 
he would have no wish to separate us. I 
should have my apartment in your hotel, my 
seat at your table, to come or go as I liked ; but 
you may be sure it would be mostly to come. I 
might find a son-in-law who would not want 
me in the way ; I might be forced to leave you, 
dear, for the sake of domestic peace ; or it might 
be some one who would whisk you away to 
some situation where there was no room for 
me ; some servant of a barbarous land, our own 
country, for instance, or one of the half-civilized 
Northern nations. With Raimond there is no 
danger of either of these misfortunes. We 
like each other and he prefers my presence ; all 
his interests bind him to France, to Paris itself. 
The very fact that he does not pretend to love 
you wildly is a guaranty that he will not prove an 
exacting or unreasonable husband. And there 
is another reason, my Helena, which for some 


122 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


months past has made me desirous of seeing 
you in a position where your future would be 
assured. I don’t feel strong, and I am pretty 
sure that the machine cannot hold out much 
longer. For myself, I dare not complain. In 
these fifty years of mine I have lived the lives 
of many men ; all earth holds I have tasted and 
enjoyed, and it is, perhaps, but fair that I 
should go to make room for others ; but I can- 
not bear to think of you, my precious child, 
left with no one to turn to for support, either 
alone here or in that deserted village with your 
Aunt Prudence, the only near relative you 
possess.” 

Cameron’s clasp tightened about his daugh- 
ter’s fingers, and she stooped to kiss her father’s 
hand. 

Now, all these things,” continued Cameron 
cheerfully, are in Raimond’s favor, and there 
is not much against him — for I don’t count, 
nor suppose you would, that he is only a few 
years younger than I.” 

Helena shook her head. 

‘‘ His disqualifications are that he is a par- 
mnUy and I confess to the weakness of having 


Helena’s history. 


123 


desired that my daughter should bear an 
ancient and honorable name ; but his people 
were respectable enough, though only poor tillers 
of the soil. Of course, I set no value on his 
mushroom title. I should have liked to see a 
real coronet on your cards, Helena, but we are, 
or ought to be, republicans, and should not 
let that influence us too much. His other 
defect is his being hand and glove with those 
rascally Bonapartes ; but they hold the winning 
cards now, and he thinks are going to keep 
them. I have a little of the sentiment of a la 
guerre, comme a la guerre ; we cannot afford 
to be too fastidious. Now, how does it strike 
you ? ” 

I will leave it to you, papa,” said Hel- 
ena. 

No, no,” said Cameron, “ you shall do no 
such thing. You know that, on the whole, I 
should be glad to see this affair settled in Rai- 
mond’s favor ; but I have no desire to force 
your inclination. I only wish for your happi- 
ness ” and my own ease,” he might have 
added), ^^and if you have any objection to 
becoming the wife of a French parvenu, you 


124 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


have only to say so, and perhaps next time it 
will be an English lord more worth the taking. 
All I ask of you, Helena, is to give the matter 
your consideration before making your final 
decision.” 

He rose to leave her, but Helena detained 
him with her hand. 

Don’t go away, Dan,” she said ; if I 
should think for a month, I could not say any- 
thing to myself which you have not told me 
and that I do not know. It is natural I should 
hesitate a moment about marrying a man I 
know so little and never regarded as a possible 
husband, but I think you are right and that it 
is the best thing I can do. You may tell Mr. 
Raimond that I accept him.” 

You are sure you will not change, nor 
regret deciding so hastily ? ” asked Cameron, a 
little anxiously, now that the die seemed cast. 

No, no, Dan,” answered Helena, don’t be 
afraid ; it will be all right.” 

All the gods bless you then, my daughter,” 
returned her father, folding her in his arms, 
after which they went to walk and talked of 
other things. 


Helena’s history. 


125 


When Raimond next appeared before Helena 
it was as her accepted suitor. He brought a 
magnificent diamond ring (which he placed upon 
her finger ; he concluded the purchase of the 
hotel in the Champs Elysees), and six weeks 
after the day of their betrothal they were mar- 
ried. They spent some months in travel, Cam- 
eron joining them after a short time, and then 
they all returned together to their Paris resi- 
dence. Raimond was daily more and more 
satisfied with the choice he had made ; Helena 
became the rage, and her salon one of the most 
crowded among the fashionable circles of the 
Empire. Her sayings were quoted from one 
end of Paris (her Paris) to the other, and rumor 
credited her with a score of lovers among the 
throngs who paid respectful homage before her 
throne. Cameron went away sometimes during 
the first part of his daughter’s married life, but 
it was even wearier work than he had supposed 
to wander alone, and he enjoyed her triumphs 
too well to wish to absent himself long from the 
scene of them : therefore he lived mostly in 
his corner of the vast establishment, and, in 
the most pressing moments of her crowded life. 


126 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Helena never forgot to care for her father’s 
comfort and happiness, as in the days when 
they had been all in all to each other, as 
indeed, in spirit they were still. Raimond 
proved himself a model husband, never inter- 
fering with his wife’s employments or predi- 
lections, or being jealous of her friends; but 
giving her carte hlanche in every direction, and 
Cameron often congratulated himself upon the 
possession of such a son-in-law. 

Everything went smoothly and delightfully 
until a weakness came upon Cameron, confin- 
ing him to his room and preventing him from 
noticing a certain indefinable change which be- 
came visible in Raimond about the time when 
Cameron’s illness commenced. The fetes became 
fewer in the hotel Raimond, for Helena was 
obliged to attend her father almost constantly. 
Some persons who knew Raimond intimately 
said it was just as well that expenses should be 
curtailed, for he had lost heavily on the Bourse, 
and could never meet certain liabilities which 
he had incurred. He did meet them, however, 
to the surprise of his friends and creditors. 
J ust then Cameron died — in Helena’s arms, in- 


Helena’s history. 


127 


flicting upon her the deepest sorrow she had ever 
known. Shortly after this there was a violent 
scene between Raimond and his wife, of which 
Helena in all her life never spoke to anyone. 

A little later the physician declared a 
complete change and a sea-voyage necessary to 
the re-establishment of Mme. Raimond’s health, 
after the severe shock it had sustained in con- 
sequence of her father’s death ; and Helena, 
Raimond assenting gloomily, went to America 
to visit her Aunt Prudence, who had often urged 
her to come. She crossed in the spring, and 
had been about three months in the quiet 
country dwelling with her aunt, when two wo- 
ful pieces of news reached her, — one that war 
had been declared between France and Ger- 
many 5 the other that Raimond had committed 
forgery, and, escaping almost out of the very 
hands of the officers sent to arrest him, had 
fled no one knew whither. From something 
he had let fall at the moment of conviction it 
was charitably supposed and announced that 
his wife had refused to redeem his honor by 
the sacrifice of the fortune settled upon her. 
Some more practical and less delicate spirits 


128 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


hardly blamed her, but the high-minded and 
the envious, of which there were a large num- 
ber, considered her almost a as participator in 
her husband’s crime. It was a hard accusation 
to bear, and the truth was simply this. When 
the altercation above alluded to took place 
between Raimond and Helena, the former had 
entreated, almost demanded, the restitution of 
the sum he had formerly given her, promising 
to return it at some future period, but not giv- 
ing any reasonable grounds for his demands ; 
for he could not bring himself to confess his 
crime to his wife, the person whom he esteemed 
and respected most in the world, and whose 
censure he most dreaded. Helena, naturally 
enough, believed that he had hardly waited for 
her father’s body to grow cold to unmask his 
true character and attempt to despoil her for 
purposes of his own which she could not divine, 
there never having been any real confidence 
between them, and indignantly refused compli- 
ance with his requests. 

In spite of Prudence’s entreaties, she now 
hastily returned to Europe, and, not being able 
to go to Paris during the long months of fam- 


Helena’s history. 


129 


ine, siege, and the commune, she settled herself 
in Geneva to await the end, and entered the 
capital shortly after the Versaillist army, to 
regulate her affairs. She found herself worse 
off than she expected : the fortune which Rai- 
mond had accumulated so easily in the early 
days of the Empire was destined, like plants 
with insufficient roots, to bear but short-lived 
flowers. The sum for which she had sold her- 
self to him had dwindled so much as to be 
insufficient to cover the amount he had forged, 
even if she had been inclined to pay it and re- 
duce herself to beggary ; for the money inher- 
ited from her grandfather she had made over 
to her father on her twenty-fifth birthday. The 
Champs Elysees hotel, to which she could lay 
no claim, had been seized by Raimond’s credi- 
tors ; and when she had collected all she pos- 
sessed, she found herself almost as poor as she 
had ever been in her life. But her courage was 
not broken : she was only hardened, not crushed, 
by what seemed to her such an accumulation of 
undeserved misfortune. I have lived by my 
wits before ; ” she said, I can live by them 
again ; ” and she left Paris, to which she had 


130 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


never returned up to the time of the beginning 
of our story. She had been in St. Petersburg 
and in the Italian capitals, making, wherever 
she went, what the Italians call a huona figura. 
She never travelled without a maid, was ahvays 
elegantly though simply dressed, lived in the best 
hotels, or in some pretty little apartment in the 
fashionable quarter of the city where she hap- 
pened to be. A good deal of scandal follow d 
her, of course. Some said she had a Russian 
prince in her train, who paid her bills and sup- 
ported her establishments ; others said. No, it 
was an English nobleman. Some concocted 
one story and some another to account for her 
movements and way of life ; but no one really 
knew anything to her discredit. Some women 
get themselves into a vast deal of trouble by 
confiding nine tenths of their histories to their 
acquaintances, and then are immensely aston- 
ished when the world discovers the other frac- 
tion. Helena was uncommunicative, nd no 
one could say that she had ever been detected 
in an act or word unbecoming a lady. Still, 
there was a prejudice against her, partly on 
account of the stain on her husband’s honor, for 


HELENAS HISTORY. 


131 


Raimond’s story was pretty generally known ; 
partly because, being still young and exception- 
ally beautiful, she was always alone ; and partly 
because her father had borne a reputation for 
extravagance and eccentricity, and her wander- 
ing life with him was not calculated to inspire 
confidence. Many vague reports concerning 
her had floated across the water, and although 
they had not reached her aunt’s ears, in her 
quiet village, and because a person’s family is 
often the last to learn anything to his detri- 
ment, yet they were pretty widely circulated, 
and in this way Mrs. Wyndham had come to 
hear of her. When, after a brilliant reign dur- 
ing the winter months in the greatest of Ital- 
ian cities, she suddenly disappeared at the com- 
mencement of the spring without taking leave 
of her friends, the tongues wagged faster than 
ever. Some said she had jfled from the Rus- 
sian prince or the English nobleman ; some that 
she had gone to avoid the scandal sure to ensue 
when a certain impending duel took place, she 
being implicated in the quarrel. When it be- 
came known, as of course it did, that, instead 
of flying to hide from something or somebody. 


132 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


in some undiscoverable country, she was only 
staying at SoiTento, people said that she had 
been seen first at Monaco, where she had played 
high and lost so much that she had been 
obliged to seek some quiet retreat in which to 
economize. Then, having finally settled the 
matter to their satisfaction, they let her alone 
for a time, and talked about somebody else. If 
Helena had told any one the real reason why 
she was at Sorrento, she would have simply 
said that the winter campaign had been more 
than usually exhausting ; that she had deserted 
when she could endure it no longer, and, like 
Sir Charles Pomander in Peg W offington,” 
had come among the quiet surroundings and 
sweet freshness of the country to gather new 
strength to enter the thick of the fight again. 

Such was the woman, brilliant, fascinating, 
but of a doubtful reputation and uncertain prin- 
ciples, whom the simple American travellers, 
the Wyndhams and Harold Hart, had, by a 
caprice of fortune, been led to Sorrento to 
meet. 


CHAPTER IV. 

A SORRENTO EVENING. 


Mamma/' said Emily, a few days later, 
there is no use in telling me not to be 
intimate with Mrs. Raimond. I think her the 
most fascinating person I ever met ; certainly 
much nicer than any one else we have seen 
since we came abroad ; and she is inclined to 
be very kind to us, and she knows — every- 
thing. It would be of the greatest advantage 
to me if I could be friends with her comfort- 
ably. What do you suppose she has just pro- 
posed ? " 

I am sure I don't know," her mother 
answered. ^^I wish she would let you alone." 

Well, I don't," retorted Emily. ^^She has 
offered to give me Italian lessons." 


134 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


I hope you refused/' said Mrs. Wyndham. 

Indeed I did not, mamma ; that would 
have been very rude. I said she was very 
good, but that I disliked giving her so much 
trouble ; and she said it would be a pleasure, 
as she had very little to do, and was tired of 
being so idle. Then she delivered an interest- 
ing little lecture to me on Italian pronuncia- 
tion ; and she gave me a short poem to learn 
by heart, and I am to recite it to her to-mor- 
row.^ 

She seems to have got you pretty well into 
her net,” Mrs. Wyndham remarked; ^^but you 
always did have your own way, and I suppose 
you mean to keep on having it. However, I 
shall turn over a new leaf if I find you seeing 
too much of her.” 

I think,” continued her daughter, disre- 
garding her mother’s threat, which she well 
knew was harmless — how often had that leaf 
been about to be turned over, but the hook 
still remained open at the same old page ! — 
I think her husband is dead.” 

‘‘What makes you?” asked her mother, 
with quick curiosity. 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


135 


Because when I went in, Josephine was 
talking to her, and she said : ^ Depuis que 
madame a perdu monsieur, son mari,^ ^ Since 
madame lost her husband,’ so she must be a 
widow.” 

“ Why does n’t she wear mourning, then ? ” 
demanded the old lady. 

All widows do not,” said Emily, “ and he 
may have been dead a long time. Besides, she 
does almost always wear white and lavender, 
and that is a sort of half-mourning. 

I saw her the other day with a blue bow 
on,” said Mrs. Wyndham. No, no, I don’t 
feel at all certain that the man has come to a 
lawful end.” 

^^Well, at least,” persisted her daughter, 
abandoning this point, in this week you have 
not discovered anything about her unworthy 
the greatest lady in the land, have you ? ” 

No ; I’m willing to admit that.” 

And you know how hard the world is, 
what wrong motives it imputes to people, and 
what false constructions it puts upon their 
actions,” continued the youthful orator, wax- 
ing warm. ^^You have heard things against 


136 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


her father, but he could not have been a bad 
man and have made her love him so. Think 
with what respect and tenderness she speaks of 
him. You did not use to like to hear mean 
things, and I have heard you defend people 
many a time when others were abusing them, 
and I don’t see why you should have conceived 
such a prejudice against Mrs. Raimond.” 

“There, there,” said Mrs. Wyndham, “I’m 
sure I don’t want to be too severe.” 

“ And you said/^ urged the wily girl, “ that 
you did not want to be impolite, but it is im- 
polite never to go near her when she asks you. 
She wants us to come to her rooms to-night 
and hear that pretty Miss Lister play ? May I 
tell her we will come, mamma ? ” 

“ 0 ! that is it ! ” exclaimed her mother. 
“ Well, well, tell her what you please. Perhaps 
I have been too hasty, and at any rate it can 
do no harm to be civil now and then. Now, 
my dear, I hope you are satisfied.” 

“ Will not you and your young people come 
to my room with me now ? ” asked Madame 
Raimond, at the close of dinner. “I expect 
some more people later, but you have not seen 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


137 


my apartment yet ; I should like to show it to 
you.” 

Mrs. Wyndham assented, and Helena pre- 
ceded her up a flight of stairs, and down a 
corridor, at the end of which she threw open a 
door, inviting her guests to enter. 

This is my salon , she said. 

Some Persian rugs were spread upon the 
tile-paved floor, and across one corner of the 
room stood a grand piano. There were two 
or three armchairs and a sofa, evidently hotel 
property, and two steamer-chairs like those 
which encumber the deck of every passenger 
vessel that crosses the Atlantic. All the furni- 
ture was covered with Sorrento silk blankets, 
or bright-colored afghans such as are sold by 
the Basques in the Pyrenees, on the borders 
of France and Spain. Velvet cushions and 
pouffs were scattered about the room. Half 
a dozen unmounted photographs and some 
pencil and water-color sketches were pinned 
upon the walls. On the table, amid a litter of 
writing and drawing materials, stood a terra- 
cotta copy of the Narcissus and the Dancing 
Faun of the Naples Museum, and a great bunch 


138 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE, 


of wild-flowers in one of the odd-shaped 
crockery jars in which wine is served at the 
osterie or wine-shops about Naples. An 
Hagere in one corner was loaded with books, 
and on a small round table in the middle of 
the room a lamp was burning, surrounded by 
several delicate porcelain coffee-cups, a silver 
sugar-basin, and a pile of tiny, gold-bowled 
spoons. 

This is a nice room ! ’’ exclaimed Mrs. 
Wyndham; do you have it all to yourself?’' 

Yes,” replied her hostess ; and here,” 
with a waive of her hand, is a small room for 
my maid ; my own sleeping-room opens out of 
this. I have known this place for years, for I 
happened to come here once with my father, 
so I wrote for this apartment, and had a trunk- 
ful of things sent down from Rome. I don’t 
mind roughing it for a time ; but when I am to 
be in a place so many months, I confess I like 
a little comfort. I should have to pay a 
fortune for such accommodations at the Vic- 
toria or the Tramontana ; but these people are 
moderate in their demands, and civil and 
obliging.” 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


139 


‘‘ This is the first grand piano I have seen 
since I left home,” said Emily. ^‘Did you 
have that sent from E-ome also ? ” 

No, the grandduchess of B , whom I 

know slightly, hired a villa here for the winter, 
and on leaving Sorrento a fortnight ago she 
bequeathed her piano to me.” 

Mrs. Wyndham opened her eyes very wide. 
Mme. Raimond had mentioned the near relative 
of a reigning house. 

“ Let us come outside,” Helena continued, 
I want to show you my beautiful view.” 

She led them out upon a large terrace 
scantily covered with grape-vines, which, 
planted in huge flower-pots placed at intervals 
along the parapet, were so trained that through 
leafy frames you looked out over the magnifi- 
cent sea-picture that lay beyond. 

The hotel Cocumella, unlike most of the 
Sorrento hotels, is not built upon the cliffs 
overhanging the sea. It stands at some little 
distance from the shore, and from its walls 
olive and orange groves and vineyards slope 
downwards towards the water. 

It was the clearest possible night. The 


140 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


heavens, more thickly studded with stars than 
the northern sky ever appears to be, seemed to 
droop towards the earth as if overburdened 
with their weight, or as if yearning to reach 
and embrace the placid floods. 

There is Ischia,^’ said Mme. Raimond, 
pointing to a large island to the left. We 
cannot see Capri : it is hidden by the point. 
Next is Procida ; and on the other side, in the 
curve of the bay, and farther along, at the 
foot of Vesuvius, are Torre Annunziata, Torre 
del Greco, and Portici where the dumb girl 
lived. That long line of lights almost opposite 
us is Naples.’’ 

0 ! how beautiful it is ! ” sighed Emily in 
ecstasy. 

1 suppose no one goes to Ischia since the 
terrible earthquake,” remarked Harold. 

“ I fancy not. Besides the horror and 
the loss of life, the devastation of Ischia is 
to be regretted on account of the mineral 
waters. Casamicciola might, in time, have 
rivalled the most famous French or German 
springs.” 

Mesdames Lister and Monsieur le Capi- 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


141 


tame/’ announced Josephine, appearing at the 
window. 

Bring out some chairs, Josephine,” said 
her mistress, after greeting the new-comers. 

Unless these ladies are afraid of taking cold, 
we will take our coffee here.” 

The ladies were not afraid : the chairs were 
brought and the coffee served, the party being 
increased meanwhile by the arrival of two 
young Italians who also spoke a little English. 
Most foreigners with a slight knowledge of our 
language court our society for the sake of the 
benefit of practising the English tongue, and 
these young men were delighted with the pros- 
pect of being able to combine an English 
lesson with a little harmless flirtation with two 
or three pretty mees,’’ as they persistently 
call English-speaking girls. 

“ How quiet Vesuvius is,” remarked Mrs. 
Lister, accepting a fragrant cup of coffee. 

It looks so innocent, one would never 
suppose it capable of doing any mischief.” 

What a mystery it is ! ” said Harold. “ I 
think I could never divest myself of a certain 
awe about it.” 


142 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Nor I/’ said Maud Lister, I cannot im- 
agine how people can go on living under it 
with the knowledge that their turn may come 
to be overwhelmed and buried.’’ 

“We Italians are not like you. W e take no 
thought for the morrow, do you not say ? ” said 
one of the young men. 

“ That is only true of you southern 
Italians,” said their hostess ; “ the rest of 
the nation has forethought and prudence 
enough.” 

“ How I should like to see an eruption ! ” 
exclaimed Emily. 

“ I was in Naples during the last one,” said 
Helena. “ Everybody rushed down from 
Rome, and I with the rest. But it was an 
awful sight. Lurid flames rising half the 
height of the mountain into the air, showers 
of stones and great pieces of rock hurled 
from the crater, and streams of burning lava 
pouring down the side. And with this, — dark- 
ness. The sun was obscured for several days, 
a thick, black cloud rested upon everything, 
and there was a constant succession of terrible 
reports like thunder. It seemed as if the day 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


143 


of wrath had come. Then when the force of 
the eruption was spent, for three days there 
was a continual rain of fine cinders. One 
could not stir out-of-doors without an um- 
brella. We drove one day to where the lava 
stream had buried the village of San Sebas- 
tiano, and the latter part of the way the 
carriage sank to the hubs of the wheels in the 
ashes. The horses could not move, and we 
were obliged to get out and walk. I never 
felt such heat ; it was like walking into a fiery 
furnace ; the perspiration streamed down our 
faces. When we reached home we were as 
sooty as chimney-sweeps/’ 

It sounds horrible,” said Mrs. Wyndham, 
who had listened with great interest. I am 
sure I should not like to see it at all.” 

Vesuvius is uncanny,” said Mrs. Lister, 
and so is most of this country, for that 
matter. You can never tell what is going to 
happen next.” 

A great portion of the soil is of volcanic 
formation ; we are more or less liable to earth- 
quakes, I suppose,” said Helena. 

Yes, Ischia,” eagerly interposed the It^ 


144 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


who was least proficient in English. Great 
pity, very beautiful place.” 

Parts of the island were covered with 
yellow broom when I was there, and were, as 
you say, very beautiful,” replied Helena, but 
it was not a very inviting spot for mere tour- 
ists. The people were unused to strangers, 
and rough and uncivilized. In one of the 
more remote towns our carriage was surrounded 
by fifty-seven boys and girls, all screaming and 
begging together.” 

0, I am glad I have not got to go there ! ” 
exclaimed Mrs. Wyndham. 

You shall stay here some time, signorina ? ” 
asked the adventurous Italian of Emily. Sor- 
rento very beautiful. You and your signora 
mamma must take the walks on donkeys 
here.” 

W alks on donkeys are hardly the thing 
for me,” observed Mrs. Wyndham dryly. 
Tell him my experience, Emily.” 

‘‘ Why,” said Emily, laughing, mamma 
thought she would go with us to CamaldoH the 
her day, but when the donkey was brought 

''.ould not get into the saddle, — at least, 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


145 


not comfortably ; and the donkey-driver said to 
her, ^ Signora, voi siete troppo colossale per 
entrare' Even I could understand that.” 

“ Signora Baronessa,” began the little cap- 
tain, with a directness peculiar to the majority 
of Italians, you invited us to hear some 
music. Are we not to have it ? ” 

“ Certainly, if the others are ready. Yes, 
they all seem to have finished their coffee. I 
will just see that the lamps are arranged prop- 
erly.” 

She entered the house, followed by the 
Wyndhams, the captain, and Harold ; the 
others remaining behind to continue an ani- 
mated conversation in broken English and 
Italian. 

“ Would you allow me to look at your 
books ? ” asked Emily, with a longing glance 
towards the bookshelves. 

Certainly, and to read them too, if you 
like,” her hostess answered. 

They were in half a dozen languages. 
Among them were a Homer in the original, a 
Horace, and a Latin Testament. Most of them 
were bound in Roman ” binding, white parch- 


146 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


ment with red-edged leaves, which is so pretty 
and cheap in Italy. Many of them were worn 
with use. 

Can you read all these ? asked Emily, 
glancing at the titles with awe and admiration. 

I like to have them near me,” was the 
evasive reply. 

The signora baronessa can read every- 
thing,” interposed the captain. She could 
fill a cattedra in any university in my country.” 

And you know Russian too, I am sure,” 
continued the young girl, for I saw you 
smile at something those Russians said at 
dinner.” 

Why, I thought nobody knew Russian 
except the Russians themselves, and they not 
always,” said Mrs. Wyndham. 

‘‘ I have been some time in St. Petersburg. 
Besides, when one has the habit of learning 
languages, new ones are easily acquired. Then 
you know, Mrs. Wyndham, Americans are 
quick to catch anything that pleases their 
fancy.” 

“We rank next to the Russians as linguists, 
do we not?” asked Harold. 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


147 


Hardly ; the Scandinavians hold the second 
place ; but I think we come after them.” 

0, Harold/’ cried Emily, who had left 
the books and was moving about the room ; 

do come and look at these sketches. I don’t 
know this pretty view, but this other is the 
sweep of the bay and Vesuvius. Is n’t it 
nice?” 

Harold went to Emily’s side, and spoke a 
few words of sincere but discriminating praise. 

“ 0, those little things are not worth the 
attention of an artist like you, Mr. Hart,” said 
Mme. Raimond, joining the young people. 

am only a portrait painter,” returned 
Harold, rather abruptly. 

How can you say ‘ only ’ after seeing the 
portraits of the old masters, and knowing what 
some of the moderns are making of them ? 
Mrs. Wyndham has told me that you had a 
picture in the Salon last year. I congratulate 
you. Do you draw too. Miss Wyndham?” 

^^No, I have no accomplishments.” 

Perhaps that is the best accomplishment 
you could have in these days when every woman 
feels it incumbent upon herself to be distin- 


148 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE, 


guished, as it were, by some especial brand or 
label.’’ 

That is all very well for you to say, who 
seems to do everything,” said the young girl in 
a reproachful tone. 

Did you never hear of the cross of pearls 
which was attached to the iron chain?” re- 
turned the other, smiling. Besides, my dear, 
you know that they who dabble in many things 
rarely do anything well.” 

I don’t see how you can say that in the 
country of Leonardo and Michel Angelo,” ex- 
claimed Emily. 

Ay, there ’s the rub,” replied Mme. Rai- 
mond. The great exceptions do but prove 
the rule for the rest of us. But the lamps are 
ready, and the captain is very impatient for his 
music.” 

She turned to the captain and made him a 
speech in Italian, to which he replied with a 
series of bows and many protestations in his 
hoarse voice. Then going to the window she 
summoned the others. 

They responded immediately ; and as soon 
as they were seated in the salon, Maud Lister 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


149 


played, to Mme. Raimond’s accompaniment, 
the Raff Cavatina, bringing out the passionate 
measures with great force and beauty for such 
a youthful amateur. 

When she had finished, the Italians broke 
into enthusiastic applause, and Mme. Raimond 
uttered warm words of praise. 

No one could help playing well with you, 
Mrs. Raimond,” the girl replied ; it is a per- 
fect inspiration. But I do not know anything 
else properly,” she continued, as Helena urged 
her to play again. ^^Now, you must please 
play to me. You know we are going away 
to-morrow, and I shall have no opportunity of 
hearing you again.” 

Helena played — first some short pieces of 
Grieg, then selections from Schumann and 
Wagner : that subtle, subjective music on 
which this generation has been so nurtured 
that it seems interwoven with our beings and 
to express — with its doubts, questionings, 
glimpses of rarest beauty and its restless, 
unsatisfied longings — the mental conditions 
under which we live. 

It was above the comprehension of half the 


150 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 




audience. Mrs. Wyndham indulged in a series 
of quiet naps, in her corner of the sofa, waking- 
up now and then to say, How pretty ! or make 
some other equally appropriate remark ; and 
the Italians clapped their hands languidly 
at every pause. But the young Americans 
listened with intense enjoyment and almost 
breathless silence. 

I think that will do,” said Mme. Raimond 
at last, rising from the piano. 

‘‘We thank you very much, signora,” said 
one of the young Italians ; “ but now that you 
have given us music for the head, will you not 
give us some music for the heart ? ” 

“Yes,” assented the other, eagerly ; “per- 
haps an air from ‘ Lucia ’ or something from our 
great master, Verdi. To tell the truth, we do 
not understand the barbarous German music.” 

Unfortunately neither Mme. Raimond nor 
Maud Lister had “ Lucia ” or any light operatic 
airs at their fingers’ ends. 

“We might play some Volkslieder or some 
American tunes, Maud,” suggested Gretchen 
Lister ; “ we can play those without notes. Per- 
haps those would please them.” 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


151 



That is an excellent idea/’ said Mme. Rai- 
mond. 

Gretchen Lister seated herself at the piano, 
and the sisters launched into the Old Folks at 
Home,” which they followed with various other 
German and American melodies, eliciting the 
mitigated approval of the Italians, who would 
have preferred something gayer and noisier, and 
who implored the young ladies not to waste their 
exceptional talents on anything less beautiful 
than the works of the great Italian masters, 
Verdi, Rossini, etc. 

The musical discussion was not concluded 
when Mrs. Lister rose to take leave. 

We must be off early,” she said. “You 
know we are to drive to Gastellammare in the 
morning, to the Naples train, in order to get on 
to Rome in the afternoon.” 

“ I almost envy you,” said their hostess. “ I 
never hear that any one is going to Rome 
without wanting to go too. But in Italy one 
would always like to be in two or three places 
at once.” 

“ They are making Rome so beautiful now,” 
said the Italian who knew the least English ; 


152 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


such broad new streets, such fine houses — 
very beautiful.” 

<< Why, do you think so ? I think they 
are spoiling it,” replied Mrs. Lister, “ tearing 
down all the mediaeval part, putting up such 
quantities of ugly buildings, like so many bar- 
racks to look at, cutting the Villa Ludovisi 
into house-lots and streets, and ruining the 
views in every direction.” 

W ell, it is bad enough from a picturesque 
point of view,” said Mme. Raimond ; but I 
think we foreigners assume a very egotistic atti- 
tude towards the doings of the Italians. I think 
we ought to be willing to concede something to 
the exigencies of a modern capital. Besides, 
they are paying great attention to the preserva- 
tion of the antiquities, and while those and the 
pictures and statues and the Roman sky are 
left us, Rome will still be in a measure Rome.” 

The best use they could make of their 
antiquities and museums and all the rest of it 
w^ould be to sell them to the English,” declared 
the captain. 

A chorus of disapprobation greeted this 
speech. 





\ 



A SORRENTO EVENING. 


153 


Why, you surely would not wish to deprive 
your chief city of all its characteristic charm ? ” 
asked Helena. 

“ In the first place, signora, Rome ought 
not to have anything to do with Italy. The 
Italians should have left it to the Pope and 
have kept Florence for their capital. Then 
we could have started afresh, — a new country 
with a new future.” 

And have given up your past with all its 
great associations and the prestige of Roman 
glory ? ” cried Helena. 

Our past is only a clog, — a weight upon us. 
We do not want to be trammelled any longer 
by the old traditions. What we desire is a 
free field and an opportunity to become a great, 
practical, modern nation, hke the country of 
these ladies.” 

The ladies protested again, while the other 
two Italians fell upon him with all the violent 
volubility of which the Italian tongue is capa- 
ble. 

Oh ! I see, I have drawn down an ava- 
lanche upon myself,” said the captain, laugh^ 
ing. ‘‘Signora Baronessa^ io scappo.^' And 


154 


A SORBENTO ROMANCE. 


immediately becoming very grave again, he 
drew his heels together, made a solemn com- 
prehensive bow and left the room. 

Well ! of all the extraordinary creatures ! ” 
exclaimed Mrs. Lister. “But now we must 
really bid you good-bye. We have enjoyed 
the evening so much.” 

“ Yes, it has been delightful,” exclaimed the 
sisters, in chorus. 

“ I am very sorry to part with you,” Helena 
answered. “ There will be a general exodus 
soon, I suppose, and I shall be left all alone, 
unless Mrs. Vv^yndham is compassionate and 
remains with me.” 

Mrs. Lister and her daughters withdrew, ac- 
companied by the two Italians, who were still 
volubly demonstrating to the young ladies how 
their country might achieve a great practical 
future without any renunciation of her tra- 
ditions. 

“Do not go yet, Mrs. Wyndham,” said 
Helena, as Mrs. Wyndham was about to follow 
the others. “It is very early, and you have 
no train to catch to-morrow morning.” 

Emily gave her mother an appealing look. 


A SOBRENTO EVENING. 


155 


If we stay a few minutes longer, will you 
sing to us a little, Mrs. Raimond ? ” she 
asked. ought to be contented with what 
I have had, but it is just the night for 
music. I should be so grateful if you would 
sing.” 

I will sing with pleasure,” replied Helena, 
reseating herself at the piano. 

Her voice was a very low contralto, very 
rich and sweet. Her performance was some- 
thing between chanting and singing, and the 
first effect was so unusual that pleasure was 
lost in astonishment. Soon, however, aston- 
ishment deepened into admiration, and her 
audience became fascinated, entranced by her 
monotonous melodies and the intensity of ex- 
pression she threw into them. She sang only 
tender or pathetic verses : Come not when I 
am dead ” and ‘^Ask me no more; ” Matthew 
Arnold’s beautiful lines, Strew on her roses, 
roses,” and Mr. Browning’s exquisite song. 
You’ll love me yet, and I cam tarry; your 
love’s protracted growing.” 

I never heard any of those songs before,” 
said Mrs. Wyndham, who w^as listening, all 


/ 




156 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


attention, with the tears streaming down her 
cheeks. What are they, ma’am ? ” 

Pickings .and stealings,” Helena answered, 
fear the great composers would turn in 
their graves, could they know to what a use I 
have put some of their motifs and certain 
scraps of melody that are woven into their 
works.” 

No, I think they would thank you for em- 
ploying them so beautifully,” said Emily; do, 
please, keep on.” 

“ I will sing you a little Italian song,” said 
Helena ; “ Miss Emily knows what it means, 
for I translated it to her this morning.” And 
she sang this sweetest of the people!s songs, in 
music of her own, as sad and delicate as itself : 

Oh ! quanto melanconico 
E d' Espero il fulqor, 

Quando scintilla languido 
Tra il giorno che si muor t 

Le nuvoletti simili 
A impallidite fior, 

Semhra che un serto intrecciano 
At giorno che si muor. 

Del cuore umano i gemiti, 

Ma l^-sue gioie ancor, 

Al muiO avello scendono 
Col giorno che si muor. 


A SORRENTO EVENING, 


157 


[Translation.] 

Oil ! how melancholy 
Of Hesper is the ray, 

When it sparkles slowly 
O’er the dying day. 

The cloudlets, faintly shining 
Like flowers that fade away. 

Seem a garland twining 
For the dying day. 

The heart’s regret and longing, 

And joys that cannot stay, 

To the grave are thronging 
With the dying day. 

“It is very pretty/’ said Mrs. Wyndham; 
but I like the English ones best because I 
can understand them.” 

“ You are perfectly right/’ replied her host- 
ess ; “ we will have one little English one for 
the last ” : 

The roses blooming, blooming. 

Strewed blossoms on his way; 

No cloud of sorrow looming. 

On life’s bright morning lay. 

She passed, a thing of beauty, 

So marvellously sweet ; 

Honor he left, and duty. 

To worship at her feet. 

She cared not that he loved her. 

No word of pity spake ; 

No kind compassion moved her 
That one more heart should break. 


158 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


The roses falling, falling, 

Lay withered on his grave ; 

The Autumn winds went calling : 

Love has no power to save. 

The song ended in a sob, and its accompani- 
ment with a chord in which all hopelessness 
seemed concentrated. For a moment there 
was silence in the room. Harold leaned 
against the piano, with a shiver, and Emily 
gave a sort of stifled groan. 

Dear me!” said Mrs. Wyndham, at last, 
wiping her eyes ; 1 feel as if I had been at 

my own funeral.” 

Her speech broke the spell. They all 
laughed a little, nervously. 

Who wrote those words?” asked Emily; 

I never heard them before.” 

They are by that person whom, as a child, 
1 remember thinking so prolific a writer — 
Anonymous,” answered Helena, smihng. 

During the week of their acquaintance Har- 
old, who was very observant, had been con- 
stantly on the watch to detect in Helena some 
shadow of arrogance or desire to display her 
varied accomplishments, but without success. 
Emily had been profuse in her admiration of 


A SORRENTO EVENING. 


159 


Mrs. Raimond’s words and deeds, but he had 
not addressed her a syllable which could be 
construed into a compliment. Now he bent 
over her, saying in a low tone, — 

“ So you add that sin to all the rest ? ” 

“ Et tUy Brute f ’’ retorted Helena, with a 
roguish look in her eyes. 

Harold blushed and drew back. There was 
little in the words either had spoken, yet each 
had conveyed volumes to the other. The others 
had not noticed this little episode. Helena 
now rose from the piano, and crossing the 
room, seated herseK in a chair near the window 
where Emily stood. Emily, who was taller 
than Helena, laid her arm timidly about Hel- 
ena’s neck. 

How can I ever thank you, Mrs. Rai- 
mond ? ” she whispered at her ear. 

‘‘My dear girl,” replied Helena, gently, “ your 
pleasure and your sweet appreciation are better 
thanks than I deserve ; ” and taking the young 
girl’s hand in hers, she raised it to her lips. 
The color rushed over Emily’s face and neck. 
No one had ever kissed her hand before, and 
that this radiant creature, who composed music 


160 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


and sang like an angel, should perform towards 
her what she considered an act of homage, was 
almost more than she could bear. The room 
fairly spun before her. Meanwhile, Helena, 
quite unconscious of the commotion she had 
created in her youthful admirer’s heart, was 
saying calmly, — 

Will you please shut the terrace-door, Mr. 
Hart; it is growing chilly: Mrs. Wyndham 
may take cold.” 

Oh ! we must not stay another minute,” 
said Mrs. Wyndham, rising and wiping her 
eyes once more. My dear lady,” she con- 
tinued, clasping Helena’s hand, warmly ; I 
don’t know why I should thank you for mak- 
ing me miserable, for I have not cried so much 
in a long time ; but I do thank you. It has 
really been a wonderful experience.” 


CHAPTER V. 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 

After the evening described in the pre- 
ceding chapter, Mrs. Wjndham never again 
uttered a derogatory \yord concerning Helena, 
nor attempted to place any restraint upon her 
dauo:hter’s intercourse with her. It became an 
established custom for the four to pass the 
evenings together in Helena’s apartment, and 
the younger people were rarely separated for 
more than a few hours at a time. It had been 
a dry winter, and by way of compensation the 
first half of May was very wet. Often the 
ladies could only escape from the house for a 
few moments during the intervals between the 
showers, but they had Helena’s books and music 


1G2 


A SOKKENTO ROMANCE. 


as a resource, and the bad weather afforded an 
excellent opportunity for the pursuance of the 
Italian lessons. These, in which Harold shared, 
took place in the forenoons in Helena’s salori, 
and were productive of much enjoyment both 
to teacher and pupils. There would be more 
incitement to the study of Italian if the modern 
Italian literature were of more importance,” 
remarked Harold, one morning, as they closed 
their books. 

Yes,” said Emily ; for instance, there are 
hardly any novels, — are there ? — except the 
few famous classics.” 

A certain number of novelists have lately 
come into notice,” Helena answered ; but they 
are rarely of the first excellence. Farina, Verga, 
Matilde Serao and Foofazzaro are amono* the 
best. Here is the ^ Vita Militare’ by De Amicis, 
which I shall give you to read soon. I think 
very highly of it. De Amicis was an officer in 
the army during some part of the struggle for 
Italian unity, and these sketches of Military 
Life are drawn from his own experience. Many 
of them are very touching, and arouse all one’s 
faith in the better qualities of human nature. 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


163 


De Amicis himself has some charming traits of 
character. He is never ashamed of his youth ; 
he portrays his sentiments and impressions with 
a refreshing frankness. He takes almost a 
childlike delight in all that is beautiful, sur- 
prising or novel, and with this open-heartedness 
and absence of reserve he combines strength 
of purpose and many sterling quahties. To 
spend an hour in his company is like taking a 
sun-bath. — The association of ideas is a curious 
thing,’^ she continued, after a pause. ^^De 
Amicis’ pages often recall to me a walk I once 
took in the Spreewald in Germany on a Sun- 
day morning. The Wends, in their bright-col- 
ored costumes and fluttering white head-dresses, 
were on their way to church. We all passed 
through the cornfields, where the grain, breast 
high, was interspersed with cornflowers and 
poppies ; a gentle summer breeze was blowing, 
and the silence was complete, save for the sound 
of the larks as they mounted into the sky. I 
used to think too that De Amicis had ‘ God’s 
gift of the morning-star,’ as Mr. Browning puts 
it. You remember. Miss Emily.” 

“ Oh, yes,” said Emily \ and you make me 


164 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


long to read him though I fear my less vivid 
imagination might not discover in him all that 
you do.” 

You have been describing the man as he 
appears to you rather than the author,” 
remarked Harold. Do you suppose this to 
be a fair specimen of the Italian character? ” 

I believe so, at least of the better class of Ital- 
ians. De Amicis is a Piedmontese, the race to 
which, as you know, Italy chiefly owes her pres- 
ent position. The Piedmontese remind me of 
our New Englanders in their thrift, their love 
of order, and their recognition of the idea of 
duty.” 

But I thought Italians were a very untrust- 
worthy people,” said the young man. 

“ The English-speaking races often have very 
prejudiced ideas about the Continental nations,” 
replied Helena. My experience has led me 
to love and admire the Italians. They seem 
to me to resemble more closely what we im- 
agine the Greeks to have been than any other 
extant nation. They have not the all-eclipsing 
intellectual ascendency, but they possess much of 
that ^ eternal childhood ^ which is one of the 


I SIGNORI BIANOHI. 


165 


most attractive characteristics of the Greeks. 
They are proud, sensitive and easily jealous ; 
but they are wonderfully free from personal 
vanity, generous, frank and unreserved, and 
utterly without self-consciousness, — a most 
enviable trait for the rest of us who never can 
forget ourselves.” 

But are they truthful ? ” asked Harold, 
You have omitted the essential point.” 

They are not deceitful in the broad sense 
of the term, — that is, they are loyal to their 
beliefs and their friends ; but when it comes to 
the minute affairs of everyday life, no people 
have such a strict regard for truth as the 
Anglo-Saxons. They inflict upon others and 
subject themselves to a multitude of inconve- 
niences rather than deviate a hair’s breadth from 
the fact ; while an Italian never hesitates to 
make himself and everyone else comfortable 
by a few graceful lies. — Indeed, to speak the 
truth myself,” added Helena, laughing, I 
think they have a dislike to a plain unvarnished 
statement. They prefer a little arabesque and 
ornamentation.” 

I could never accept that,” said Harold, 


166 


A SOKRENTO ROMANCE. 


emphatically ; yea must be yea, and nay, nay. 
How can there be any real friendship between 
two persons, and how can there be mutual con- 
fidence and trust if there is not sincerity of 
speech ? How can I expect to believe or be 
believed where truthfulness is not the habit of 
the mind ? I hope I am not intolerant, I hope 
I can forgive and condone a great many faults, 
but I cannot pardon deceit in any form.’^ 

I assure you, you are too severe,” returned 
Helena ; you must remember that everyone 
is not born with a line of ancestors who have 
adhered so strictly to the letter that it has 
become almost impossible for their descendants 
to utter a falsehood. You feel a natural 
repugnance to a lie ; but it is an easy thing for 
many. I know how easy, for I am half French 
myself. You need not look shocked, my dear 
Miss Emily, I have not told either of you any 
lies yet. And then, Mr. Hart, the wonder 
really is that the Italians are even as honorable 
and truthful as they are, under the influence of 
the Catholic Church, which is the propagator 
and aider and abettor of deceptions. You were 
in Rome during Holy Week, Miss Emily, and 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


167 


you must have noticed in St. Peter^s the long 
rods protruding from the confessionals that 
were occupied by priests ; and perhaps you 
sometimes saw persons kneeling before a con- 
fessional to be touched on the head by the rod. 
That blow remits all venial sins, among which, 
fortunately for most people, lying is included.’" 

If I were to make my home away from 
America, I would rather it should be among a 
Protestant people,” observed Harold. 

And to me,” said Helena, “ there is no 
country so sympathetic as Italy. She appeals 
to my heart, my sentiment, my imagination. 
There is no sky so blue, no atmosphere so 
balmy, no people so simple, so winning, even 
if they do tell fibs, Mr. Hart. I will cast in 
my fortune with theirs, and this lovely land 
shall be my fatherland.” 

Why do you not use the words of Ruth, 
and have done with it ? ” suggested Harold, 
with a smile. 

It would be no over-statement,” Helena 
assented. 

Ah ! ” sighed Emily ; it is indeed most 
beautiful! Think, Harold, of our visit in 


168 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Naples, and our first week here ! I thought 
there could not be a second such paradise on 
earth. And then my month in Kome ! That 
is an ineffaceable memory.” 

“ If you want to be loyal to your native land, 
never go to Rome to stay,” said Helena ; for 
it exercises a fascination that holds one against 
friends and kin and country. The charm is 
slow to come, but it penetrates into the very 
fibres of one’s being ; it is indescribable in 
words, but it never weakens nor diminishes. 
Goethe’s father said he never could be quite 
unhappy again after having seen Naples ; but 
I say anyone who has once felt the spell of 
Rome never can be quite happy except within 
the circle of the Seven Hills.” 

I heard some people talking very much like 
you in om pension , said Emily, “ and one lady, 
a new-comer, told them she had heard a great 
deal about the Roman fever, and now she knew 
what it was.” 

Let them laugh,” said Helena, smiling to 
herself ; the fascination of Rome is only the 
culminating effect of the general influence of 
Italy. Let me read you what a delightful 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


169 


English author says about ancient Italy, and 
that part of it where we are now ; ’’ and tak- 
ing a vellum-covered album from the table, 
she read aloud the following extracts from 
Symonds’ Kenaissance in Italy — 

^ The very names of Parthenope, Pozzuoli, 
Inarime, Sorrento, Capri, have their fascina- 
tion. There, too, the orange and lemon groves 
are more luxuriant, the grapes yield sweeter 
and more intoxicating wine, the volcanic soil 
is more fertile, the waves are bluer and the 
sun is brighter than elsewhere in the land. 
None of the conquerors of Italy have had the 
force to resist the allurements of the Bay of 
Naples. The Greeks lost their native energy 
upon these shores and realized in the history 
of their colonies the myth of Ulysses’ com- 
rades in the gardens of Circe. Hannibal was 
tamed by Capua. The Romans, in their turn, 
dreamed away their vigor at Baiae, at Pompeii, 
at Caprese, until the whole region became a by- 
word for voluptuous living. Here the Saracens , 
were subdued to mildness, and became physicians 
instead of pirates. Lombards and Normans 
alike were softened down, and lost their bar- 


170 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


barous fierceness amid the enchantments of the 
Southern sorceress.’ 

And again, speaking of the Middle Ages : 

‘ To the captains and soldiery of France, 
Italy already appeared a splendid and fascinat- 
ing Circe, arrayed with charms, surrounded 
with illusions, hiding behind perfumed thick- 
ets her victims changed to brutes, and build- 
ing the couch of her seduction on the bones of 
murdered men. Yet she was so beautiful that, 
halt as they might for a moment and gaze 
back with yearning on the Alps that they had 
crossed, they found themselves unable to 
resist her smile. Forward they must march, 
through the garden of enchantment, hence- 
forth taking the precaution to walk with drawn 
swords, and, like Orlando in Morgana’s Park, 
to stuff their casques with roses that they might 
not hear the siren’s voice too clearly. It was 
thus that Italy began the part she played 
through the Renaissance for the people of the 
North. ^ The White Devil of Italy ’ is the title 
of one of Webster’s best tragedies. A white 
devil, a radiant daughter of sin and death, hold- 
ing in her hands the fruit of the knowledge of 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


171 


good and evil, and tempting the nations to eat : 
this is how Italy struck the fancy of the men of 
the sixteenth century. She was feminine and 
they were virile ; but she could teach, and they 
must learn. She gave them pleasure ; they 
brought force. The fruit of her embraces with 
the nations was the spirit of modern culture, 
the genius of the age in which we live.’ ” 

It is beautifully expressed,” said Emily, as 
Helena ceased. 

And the results are grand,” added Harold ; 
but surely you cannot call that good doctrine 
from a moral point of view. Aught we not to 
resist and crush the desire for such charms and 
allurements as threaten to rob us of our force ? 
Are we not to resist to the end the seductions 
of a Circe ? There can be no compromise with 
the agents of sin and death.” 

0 ! you unmitigated Anglo-Saxon ! ” cried 
Helena. One must fight and struggle, com- 
bat and resist, then, from the weary beginning 
to the weary end ? The eye shall never be 
sweetly blinded by enchantments, nor the ear 
soothed with the dulcet measures of the sirens’ 
songs ! Armed to the teeth, in armor impene- 


172 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


trable, you shall set your face grimly against 
the soft delights of ease and repose ? You 
will die sword in hand, and there shall be no 
charm, no gentle green-sward, no sweet luxu- 
riance along the rock-bound coast on which 
your barque goes down at last.” 

I did not mean to convey quite that im- 
pression,” answered Harold seriously ; but at 
least you will admit that the Anglo-Saxon per- 
severance, uprightness and resistance of temp- 
tation have been of immense benefit to the 
world ; and that the very rigidity of our prin- 
ciples has formed, as it were, the backbone 
of modern civilization.” 

^ Ye are the salt of the world,’ ” replied Hel- 
ena, sarcastically ; but at times the salt has 
lost its savor. There have been periods in Eng- 
lish history as corrupt as in that of any other 
nation, and you have not always monopolized 
certain qualities on which you pride yourselves 
so much. Take, for instance, a single example. 
Columbus was an Italian. You cannot find 
more devotion to a great idea, more constancy 
and determination to overcome obstacles, and 
more heroic self-forgetfulness than were com- 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


173 


bined in him. And I need not remind you of 
the characters of Michael Angelo and Dante ; 
they must certainly command your admiration.” 

‘‘ I never doubted that there existed great 
and earnest men of every nationality,” Harold 
answered ; please do not wilfully mistake me. 
But let us waive the point. We all know 
something of the past of Italy, and here is its 
present about us now ; what do you suppose 
its future will be ? ” 

These things lie on the lap of the gods,” 
Helena replied ; but I think the friends of 
Italy are growing more hopeful about her every 
day. Within the kingdom there are, in some 
respects, as heterogeneous elements as those 
contained in our own enormous country. True, 
they have not the problem of a half -civilized 
indigenous race to deal with, nor that of im- 
ported foreign populations ; but the difference 
between the various portions of the country is 
very great. It is a land composed of separate 
units, only gradually becoming fused and melted 
into a whole ; and the diversity between our 
own North and South is hardly more striking 
than that between the North and South of 


174 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Italy. The present government has suffered 
more disturbance from the two Sicilies than 
from all the rest of the country put together ; 
and those provinces are a continual drag upon 
the prosperity and progress of the land. The 
population of the North is frugal and indus- 
trious, that of the South superstitious and 
lazy. Nevertheless, there has been a great 
change for the better during the last ten years. 
The people of Naples itself are still addicted 
to vice, still, to a great extent, beggars and 
thieves ; but the manners and customs of the 
inhabitants of the surrounding province have 
become much ameliorated by the regulations of 
an enlightened form of government and the 
contact with foreigners. Then Italy has been 
filled with factions and dissatisfied bodies of 
men. There is the Papal party, forever oppos- 
ing an ineffectual but obstinate resistance to the 
decrees of government ; there is a large Repub- 
lican party, many members of which submitted 
to the leadership of the House of Savoy as the 
only possible issue to the state of affairs, but 
who cannot calmly renounce the vision of a re- 
public for which they fought and their friends 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


175 


and brothers fell ; then there is the party of 
Italia Irredenta, which is bent upon the entire 
redemption, the geographical unity of Italy. 
It clamors to have included in her territory all 
portions of her natural soil which have, by 
treaty or long possession, become a part of 
other nations. They even wish to annex to 
Italy a large slice of Austria, in which 
Italian is the prevailing language. The Peace 
of Villafranca, by which Nice and Savoy were 
ceded to France and Austria was left in pos- 
session of Venice, was an awful blow to the 
country, and revealed in the clearest light the 
purely selfish policy which had instigated the 
third Napoleon’s assistance of Italy. But while 
the wishes of the Irredenta party are natural 
enough and are probably cherished in secret 
by all their countrymen, — to insist upon their 
accomplishment is madness. Before all things, 
Italy has needed peace, and these people would 
have been quite capable of plunging her into 
a war. To control these various factions ; to 
educate an unprepared people to appreciate the 
advantages of a constitutional government ; to 
develop the resources and protect the products 


176 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


of a land so long overridden by priests, op- 
pressed beneath a foreign yoke, and drained by 
successions of wars and revolutions, — required 
wiser and more able statesmen than the country 
has always possessed. Then there is another 
point which sometimes makes me tremble, 
though perhaps it is only a woman’s senti- 
mental feeling. Italy has heen. Hers was the 
oldest of modern literatures and gave the im- 
pulse to all the rest. Almost every form of 
music was invented on her soil. In painting she 
was unrivalled, — one may say, unapproached. 
In science and the liberal professions she stood 
first. She was the storehouse from which 
Europe drew. Now, history teaches us one un- 
varying lesson. The great nations of antiquitv 
flourished and passed away ; in modern times, 
Spain and Italy rose and fell. It is ever per- 
mitted to a nation to grow great twice, and 
may this one ever again attain to a really prom- 
inent position among European nations ! ” 

But one may consider that in the Renais- 
sance Italy has already enjoyed a second 
existence,” said Harold ; “ for the glory of 
that period to which you have just referred 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


177 


shone upon the spot where the centre of 
Roman civilization had been.” 

That is true/’ assented Helena ; and 
when one remembers how many times the city 
of Rome has been devastated by fire and sword 
and pillage, and how it has risen again and 
again, one is tempted to believe in its title of 
‘ eternal.’ When one recalls how from the 
earliest times until no very remote date the 
country has been torn and ravaged and 
trampled upon, and then sees how fair and 
blooming it has again become, one almost dares 
to take it as a token that a regenerating spirit 
is at work in the land, and to hope for it a 
third life as glorious and more enduring than 
the other two. Besides, apart from this some- 
what sentimental train of reasoning, those who 
are wiser than I declare that Italy with her 
position between two seas and her fruitful soil 
contains within herself the seed of prosperity 
which cannot fail to develop under the impulse 
given to industry by a free and settled govern- 
ment. They say that some of the conditions 
which seemed disadvantageous to the country 
have really been beneficial, such, for instance. 


178 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


as the abstinence of the Clerical party from all 
participation in municipal affairs. They say 
that the Irredenta and Republican parties have 
diminished, and that the signs of reconciliation 
between the Liberals and the Clericals are 
becoming continually more apparent, — that 
although much remains to be done, very much 
has been done already, more even than 
appears on the surface.” 

What few Italians I have met, have 
seemed to me pretty well satisfied with them- 
selves,” remarked Harold. 

You have touched precisely a point which 
causes me great uneasiness. I think the greatest 
danger — I will not say to Italian prosperity, 
but to Italian character — is the sort of self- 
satisfaction many of them display. Because 
they have done so well, they think they have 
done everything. There was some truth, too, 
in the captain’s remarks the other night, 
though not in the sense in which he meant 
them. ^ The modern Italians rest too much 
upon their past.’ Because they were once first 
in all departments, they fancy this still to be 
the case : forgetting how, when they were 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


179 


lying crushed beneath the heel of the conqueror, 
the other nations were progressing until they 
have surpassed them in almost all branches.” 

W ell, for the sake of your sympathy, I 
will hope that their conceit will not be taken 
out of them by defeat in war. They seem to 
be steadily preparing for war. Do they wish 
for it ? ” 

I do not think any European nation really 
wishes for war, and I do not think we shall see 
more than one more war during* our lifetime. 
Perhaps there will never be another after us. 
That the European nations have abstained from 
war so long under such trying conditions, is 
sufficient proof of how great the shrinking 
from that kind of solution has become, how 
strong is the leaning towards peace. Still, 
when war does come, the Italians will be 
ready, and will doubtless regard it as a means 
of national aggrandizement. In case of a 
successful issue, they will undoubtedly regain 
some of their former territory. I wish they were 
masters of every foot of it ! ” 

Are not the King and Queen much be- 
loved ? ” asked Emily. 


180 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Yes, indeed ; except, perhaps, the Emperor 
of Germany, they are the most popular sover- 
eigns in Europe. Speaking of the German 
Emperor, there is a capital anecdote told of his 
visit to Naples. You know how devoted the 
Italian people are to the lottery. Well, before 
the Emperor’s arrival the Neapolitans played on 
the number corresponding to emperor ” and on 
two others signifying circumstances connected 
with his visit. All three numbers were drawn 
that week, and they won large sums of money. 
No wonder their enthusiasm for the Emperor 
was so intense.” 

They seemed very enthusiastic about the 
Queen in Rome,” remarked Emily. 

Yes, and she deserves it. She is an intel- 
lectual, cultivated woman, gracious and affable, 
and full of fine traits — quite an ideal sover- 
eign. They say the King consults her about 
all the affairs of the State.” 

What a grave-looking man Umberto is ! ” 
said Harold. 

There is something pathetic to me in his 
seriousness,” replied Helena, and in the pre- 
mature old age which has fallen upon him. 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


181 


And he seems to me one of the most admirable 
figures in contemporaneous history. Everyone 
knows of his splendid conduct when the chol- 
era was raging in Naples. Wherever there is 
suffering or disaster, there he is to be found. 
He is the soul of generosity also, which makes 
the economy he forces himself to practice all 
the more commendable. There is no one whom 
I do not know personally, for whom I have 
such a sincere regard as Umberto. You may 
think me extravagant ; but I think I have no 
stronger desire than that for the advancement 
and welfare of Italy.’’ 

It is a generous sentiment,” said Harold, 
rising as he spoke. But I see the weather is 
clearing, and I must go for my tramp. Much 
as I should like to stay with you, I must be 
true to my principles, and tear myself away 
from Circe and the sirens.” 

Very well,” cried Helena. — No, I will 
not shake hands with you, nor when you return, 
either, unless you bring us a bunch of roses as 
big as your head as some amends for the ease 
with which you leave us alone. Well, Emily 
and I will read De Amicis and adore Italy with- 


182 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


out you. Stay as long as you please, and you 
will find that we support your absence with 
uncommon equanimity.” 

Harold started on a long walk, as was his 
daily custom, — rain or shine, — and when he 
returned, several hours later, was laden with 
branches of wild-roses, which he bestowed as a 
peace-offering upon Helena. 

That night there was a heavy thunder-shower. 
At one moment the horizon seemed one sheet 
of white light ; at the next, jagged darts of 
lightning tore the black clouds asunder. Crash 
followed crash in bewildering succession, and 
torrents of rain fell. But towards midnight 
the peals of thunder became less frequent, 
the flashes less terrible, and finally the rain 
ceased and the stars began to peer through the 
rifts in the clouds ; and when our friends awoke, 
on the following morning, the sun was shining 
brightly in the bluest of heavens ; and from 
that moment the days dawned and died in un- 
broken splendor, hardly a cloud obscured the 
summer sky and not a drop of rain fell for 
four whole months. 

The exodus which Helena had predicted had 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


183 


occurred ; even the Italian officers had left 
Sorrento, and Helena and the Wyndhams had 
the hotel to themselves. They felt no need of 
other companions. Mrs. Wyndham amused 
herself contentedly with some novels and a 
great piece of worsted work ; while for the 
younger people there followed some weeks of an 
ideal life, — a life a irois, which is often pleas- 
anter than one a deux, especially when each 
two are in perfect sympathy and the presence 
of the third is never felt as a restraint. 

Helena had too much tact ever to intrude 
upon the liberty of the others. After the first 
advances she let them seek her; but both 
Harold and Emily enjoyed more in her society 
than they had ever done alone. She revealed 
to them many a beauty which might have es- 
caped their observation, and unclosed for them 
many a hitherto sealed book. Emily, in her 
generous enthusiasm, and Harold in the half- 
unconscious surrender of his being to Helena's 
intoxicating charm, agreed that their new friend 
was almost able to paint the lily and gild re- 
fined gold. 

In compliance with Helena's suggestion, they 


184 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


had adopted the Italian mode of life : rising 
early and devoting the warm hours of the 
afternoon to repose. Sometimes they took 
Mrs. Wyndham for a drive to Massa, or along 
the completed portion of the new road to 
Amalfi ; but oftener they roamed about the 
country on foot or on donkeys, returning before 
noon, through the narrow lanes, between the 
high walls jealously guarding the orange-groves. 

The friends soon became known in Sorrento 
and the surrounding country as I Signori 
Bianchi,'^ because they were always attired 
in white flannel suits. The Italian people 
are never satisfied until they have attached to 
all familiar persons or objects some character- 
izing adjective. The beggars lying in wait 
along the roads called them also huoni 
forestieri^^ and hailed their approach with 
delight, aware that it meant a shower of 
copper coins into their battered hats. 

Our conduct is simply scandalous,’’ Helena 
would protest, laughing. ^^We are retarding 
the progress of this country by indiscriminate 
almsgiving.” 

But it is so hard to refuse a sou when one 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


185 


is happy, Emily would reply. seems to 

me as if I ought to share some little portion of 
my own content with these poor creatures.’’ 

Their excursions included all the points of 
view in the neighborhood, and brought them 
once or twice to the high hilhtop of Deserto, 
where a few Gray friars superintend an agri- 
cultural school for boys. Sometimes they 
would stop to rest in some httle church, where 
most probably a priest would be celebrating a 
silent mass to the edification of a congregation 
of sun-burned fishermen with earrings in their 
ears, women in short woollen skirts and col- 
ored handkerchiefs thrown over their heads, 
and quantities of children. Not a word was 
audible except when the priest, turning towards 
the people, would extend his hands and bring 
them together again with the formula : Do- 
minus Vohiscum ; ” to which the peasant boy, 
assisting at the altar in his working-clothes, 
would respond : Et mm Spirito tuo.” When, 
at the tinkling of the bell, the priest raised 
the Cup and the whole assembly fell upon 
their knees, Helena also would kneel upon the 
brick pavement, and as she rose, Emily was 


186 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


sure that she, like the others, made the sign of 
the cross. On one of these occasions, as they 
were leaving the church, Helena stopped to 
ask a question of a pretty young peasant 
woman with a chjld in her arms. 

The woman, after replying, caught her 
hand and carried it to her lips. 

Voi siete hella come la Madonna,^' she 
said, with an expression of intense admiration 
in oer dark eyes ; e vox sietie cattolica ; 
andrete in ParadisoT 

I cannot help wondering whether that is 
true,” said Harold, as they descended the 
steps. 

“ That I shall go to heaven ? ” asked Hel- 
ena, laughing. 

“ That you are a Catholic. Forgive me if I 
presume too much ; but you do not seem like 
a Catholic, and I have often heard you inveigh 
against the Church.” 

Yes, so I do sometimes. My action to-day 
and on similar occasions is partly the result of 
habit. One does not hear mass every day for 
years for nothing. I was partly educated in a 
convent, you know. I cannot divest myself of 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


187 


a certain awe at the moment of the Elevation, 
although it means nothing to me, personally.” 

“ One may be respectful ; but I do not see 
how one can appear to worship what one does 
not believe in,” said Harold. 

“ Oh ! I know you are uncompromising ; but 
here I flatter myself I am your superior. I 
remember what that symbol means to others, 
and, for the moment, I can become one with 
them. Besides, one’s conscience is elastic in 
the matter of form when one does not believe 
in anything in particular.” 

What do you mean ? ” asked Emily, some- 
what shocked. Have you no beliefs ? ” 

Beliefs ? Hardly. Speculations, fancies, 
perhaps even hopes, — that is all. There was a 
time when I thought I knew a few things and 
believed several more ; but experience cured 
me of that. How can one be sure of any- 
thing in the face of the enormous influence of 
education and circumstance ? One would have 
been one thing in one place, and another 
in another. It is all a mere accident. I 
continually find persons with very different 
ideas of right and wrong, who, as far as / 


188 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


can see, stand on an equally high moral 
plane.” 

This is pure agnosticism,” said Harold, as 
Helena paused. 

Call it what you will. I only know that 
the shield which was gold on one side and 
silver on the other is an inadequate expression 
of the fact. Almost every question seems to 
me better symbolized by a kaleidoscope, whose 
figures vary as the hand which holds it moves, 
and everything changes its aspect according to 
the point of view from which it is regarded.” 

Such an uncertain state of mind must be 
very dreary,” observed Emily. 

It depends upon temperament,” replied 
Helena ; “ it is not considered an enviable 
condition to be in. However, — don’t you see? 
— we are just the people for whom the Church 
hes in wait ; when the burden imposed on us 
by the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge becomes 
too heavy to be borne, she offers us a draught 
of Lethe and rest within her bosom. Extremes 
meet, you know. However, I don’t believe 
she will get me,” she added, lightly. ‘^Mine 
is a case of ^ forewarned, forearmed.’ ” 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


189 


It is hardly a subject to jest about/’ said 
Harold. 

No, no, I am not jesting ; but before we 
leave the subject — I do not think you are 
just to Catholicism in America.” 

We see in it the opponent of progress 
and the upholder of ignorance, and we antici- 
pate from it some of the worst evils which 
may befall our country,” said Harold, warmly. 

Yet it has another and a beautiful side ; it 
is a real refuge to many, and it is a true 
democracy. One of its most attractive feat- 
ures to me is the impartiality with which it 
extends its privileges to all classes of society. 

^^But I suppose fashion penetrates within 
its precincts as well as everywhere else,” re- 
marked Emily. 

Of course, there are fashionable churches 
and others, in the poorer quarters of the cities, 
mostly frequented by the populace ; but 
in Rome, for instance, one continually sees 
rich and poor, grand ladies in silks and velvets 
and peasant men and women from the Cam- 
pagna, kneeling side by side before what they 
have been taught to reverence and adore. 


190 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


The princes of the Church have often risen 
from the ranks of the people, and within her 
inclosure there is, for intelligence and ability, 
an almost certain path to honor and emolu- 
ment. You remember the French saying, 
^ Eire duchesse et etre jeune,^ supposed to 
describe the highest state of felicity attainable 
by a woman ? I have often thought that to 
be a fairly liberal-minded cardinal would be the 
acme of masculine well-being. Don’t you think 
you would like to be a cardinal, Mr. Hart ? ” 

^‘You will jest; but I am so stupid and 
serious. That path to glory seems to me 
beset with danger to the character, distorted 
by ambition and stained by corruption.” 

“ What do you think of our secular repub- 
lics, where he is the best man who can seize 
first and grasp firmest ? ” 

Oh ! there is enough evil to be deplored 
everywhere, but I would rather take my chance 
with the new forms of government, and I be- 
lieve the time is past when a position of excep- 
tional distinction best enables us to serve our 
fellow-men, — which is, after all, the end and 
purpose of individual being.” 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


191 


“You are very generous; but I assure you, 
the community of religion is a great bond, 
hardly less than that of language, between the 
servers and the served, and brings the different 
classes of society into kinder relations than 
almost anything else can do.’' 

“ It was not always so,” replied Harold ; “ for 
social distinctions were greatest at a period 
when a difference of religious belief was un- 
known. But it would be indeed hard if there 
were not some advantage, or at least some com- 
pensation to be drawn from everything.” 

“ Miss Emily,” called Helena, “ I hope the 
view from Deserto has compensated you for 
this jolting under the hot sun. One thing I 
do believe,” she added, with a laugh, “ that he 
who dances must pay the piper. More ele- 
gantly speaking, everyone who witnesses the 
comedy of existence is taxed for the privilege. 
Sometimes Nemesis exacts the fee when the 
show is half over, sometimes she waits till the 
curtain is about to fall, and sometimes she has 
a mean way of requiring it in driblets all along 
and spoiling all one’s enjoyment of the play — 
like a railway conductor who comes to tear off 


192 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


a leaf of your ticket every two hours during 
the night, so that you can never get to sleep.’’ 

If a strict balance between pleasure and 
suffering were required of us, the account 
against me would he very heavy,” said Emily; 
^^for I have had enjoyment enough in these 
last few weeks to last a lifetime. But I am 
not so superstitious as to believe anything of 
the kind. I thankfully accept all the happiness 
that comes to me, and I hope that its memory 
will help me through darker days, if they 
should be in store.” 

^^You have learned wisdom early, Emily,” 
said Harold, with an affectionate smile. Hel- 
ena smiled also. After a pause she said : It 
is a pity to be in a Catholic country and not at 
least witness some of its ceremonies. Come 
with me to-night to that little chapel not far 
from our house. This is the last night of May, 
you know ; and the month of May, which is the 
month of the Virgin, is celebrated there with 
especial solemnity. I have been there in for- 
mer years and found it really interesting.” 

The others acceded readily to Helena’s pro- 
posal, and betook themselves that evening to 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


193 


the chapel she had mentioned. It was hardly 
larger than a small room^ and was gaudily 
decorated with white banners, laurel-wreaths^ 
candles and flowers. 

It was crowded with peasant women and a 
few women of the better classes bearing black 
lace veils upon their heads. 

At the tinkling of a bell a young woman 
recited the Mysteries of Mary, after which the 
others repeated the Litany : Sancta Mariay 
ora pro nohisy^ etc. This was followed by 
some singing, at the conclusion of which a 
Franciscan friar, in brown robes and a rope 
round his waist, preached in glowing language 
a sermon on the Virgin Mary. In conclusion 
the usual Benediction service was performed. 
At the Elevation of the Host, there occurred 
just outside the door a tremendous explosion 
of mortaletti, a kind of large torpedo or bomb 
with which on religious festivals the Southern 
Italians are accustomed to italicize their venera- 
tion of the Almighty. On this occasion, as a 
still more striking manifestation, the boys had 
kindled great bonfires, the flames of which 
mounted twenty or thirty feet in the air. 


194 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Emily gave her mother such a graphic de- 
scription of this experience that Mrs. Wynd- 
ham was seized with a desire to behold some- 
thing of a similar nature, and on the Octave of 
Corpus Christ! they all went to see the proces- 
sion in the village of Sorrento, where some 
relatives of the padrone of Cocumella had 
offered them places upon their balcony. 

The feast of Corpus Domini, established in 
comparatively recent times by the Romish 
Church, in honor of the dogma of the Real 
Presence, is celebrated in all Catholic countries 
with greater pomp than that attending any 
of the original festivals. 

On the present occasion in Sorrento, altars 
were erected at intervals along the streets and 
portions of the pavements covered with carpets. 
Beside the altar, opposite the balcony in which 
our friends were stationed, stood pots of blos- 
soming plants, while the altar itself was loaded 
with flowers and images and candles, the latter 
being lighted hastily as the procession ap- 
proached. 

First came a band of music playing a lively 
quickstep ; then, carrying banners, came com- 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


195 


panies of men in white garments faced with 
red or blue or green ; then a long troop of 
white-robed boys bearing lighted candles ; then 
priests in black gowns and white, lace-edged 
surplices ; then the canons of the cathedral in 
crimson ; then a number of little girls repre- 
senting angels, robed in white, with blue veils 
and wreaths of flowers upon their heads, and 
flowers disposed fantastically about their dress. 
Behind them, under a baldachin, came the 
priest bearing the Host, accompanied by an 
attendant holding a sort of Chinese umbrella 
over his head, and by two other priests. 

All three were attired in shining white vest- 
ments embroidered with gold. After them 
followed a crowd of women and children and a 
few men chanting in unison with the priests 
and canons. As the priest bearing the Host 
ascended the steps of the altar, assistants and 
spectators fell upon their knees : in the streets, 
on the balconies, wherever they happened to be. 

In one direction, as far as the eye could see, 
were the white-robed figures and the flickering 
candles ; in the other, the lighted altar and the 
multitude of women in many-colored garbs. 


196 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


The first dusk of evening descended like a 
mantle upon the spectacle, softening and 
heightening its effect. The chanting ceased. 
The priest, raising the Host, turned it from 
side to side, that the rays of its glory might 
fall impartially on all. Then came the usual 
explosion of mortaletti ; all rose from their 
knees, and the procession continued on its way. 

When the streets had cleared, Helena thanked 
their hostess in the name of all, and they started 
on their homeward road. 

Well, what do you think of it ? ’’ she asked,, 
appealing to the others. 

It was the most poetic sight I ever saw,’’ 
answered Emily. 

And just like a show at the theatre,” added 
her mother. 

Yes, it is theatrical; but tome there is 
something wonderfully touching in it, too.” 

Artistically speaking, it was a beautiful 
picture,” said Harold. I wish I could forget 
the ignorance and superstition which render 
such representations possible.” 

But I am not sure that we are just with 
regard to these shows and pageants,” returned 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


197 


Helena ; they are these people’s poetry. Why 
should we wish to deprive them of it ? ” 

That band was out of place/’ observed 
Mrs. W yndham ; at least they might play 
something a little less lively, — not as if they 
were leading a parcel of soldiers to a parade- 
ground.” 

They have not much feeling for the fitness 
of things,” said Helena. Before you came, 
there was a procession at St. Agnello, and the 
band actually entered the church playing a 
quickstep to which one might have danced ; and 
at the Elevation they went off — of all things, 
— into the Italian national air. I suppose the 
priest did not recognize it.” 

I have heard waltzes played on the organ 
in the churches here,” said Emily. 

Well, I am glad I’m not a Catholic, and 
that such things aren’t permitted in my 
religion,” said the elder lady. 

After this evening the weather grew very 
warm, and there was a lull for a time in the 
young people’s excursions. Often, when not 
inclined for a long ramble, they sought a 
shady corner of the garden with books and 



/ 



198 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


work, or, passing down the garden-path now 
white with fallen petals, descended the winding 
staircases and the passages cut out of the soft 
tufa-rock, to the water’s edge, where they 
would establish themselves on a sort of prom- 
ontory that jutted out into the sea. Here 
they would sit for hours : sometimes in a 
dreamy silence, sometimes proceeding with the 
Italian lessons, or sometimes Emily would 
read aloud while Harold and Helena sketched. 
Sometimes a little row-boat, whose owner had 
perceived them from a distance, would come to 
their peninsula and take them out to sea. In 
this way they visited the fragments of Roman 
ruins still remaining upon the Sorrento Point, 
and the many-colored grottoes which form a 
peculiar feature of this coast. 

What mischief have you been about, now, 
Mr. Hart ? ” Helena asked, one morning, when 
she and Harold had been working diligently 
for some time while Emily bent over the “ Last 
Days of Pompeii.” — Don’t you suppose I can 
see your satisfied smile and the pretence you 
make of shutting your book ? ” 

Only an amused smile, not a satisfied one,” 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


199 


returned Harold, handing her his sketch-book ; 

I cannot hope to do my subject justice/’ 

It was a sketch of the two young women : 
Emily in a half -crouching position, her book 
resting on her knee and her head on her 
hand, her brow concealed beneath her broad- 
brimmed hat ; Helena, leaning against a camp- 
stool with raised head and eyes, looking out 
towards the horizon, pencil and sketch-book 
lying on her lap. 

“ It is not bad,” she said, in an interested 
tone ; “ you must have a great talent for 

catching likenesses. — Look, Miss Emily, do 
you know yourself ? ” 

^^It is capital of me,” cried Emily, ^^and 
good of you, too, Mrs. Raimond ; and you 
were harder to take than I.” 

May I offer it to you, Mrs. Raimond ? ” 
asked Harold. 

I shall be delighted,” was the reply ; and 
cutting the leaf out of his book, Harold 
presented it to her with a bow. 

Emily had hoped he would give it to her ; 
but she said nothing. This hasty sketch was 
only the tangible manifestation of a desire 


200 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


that had taken possession of Harold’s mind. 
A day or two later, Emily said to Helena : 

Harold has a great favor to ask of you, so 
great that he is afraid to mention it himself, 
and he has asked me to be the petitioner.” 

Dear me ! what dreadful thing does he 
want ? ” asked Helena, with a clear conviction 
of what was coming. 

He wants to know if you would permit 
him to paint your portrait, and if he might 
copy it afterwards for a picture he means to 
paint. He says he has thought of it ever 
since he saw you.” 

W ell, I don’t know that I ever sat for 
a model yet, though my portrait has been 
painted several times, and hideous-looking 
things the amateur artist generally contrived 
to make of me,” said Helena, laughing at the 
remembrance of the monstrosities which had 
been intended to resemble her. But I 
should think,” she added, rather coldly, that 
Mr. Hart could prefer his requests himself.” 

Oh ! don’t be provoked with Harold,” 
exclaimed Emily. It is my stupidity. I was 
to ask you if you objected to sitting in a 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


201 


general way ; and if you did, the subject would 
not have been referred to again, and you 
would have been spared the trouble of refus- 
ing. But I do hope you will consent. I am 
sure Harold would make a beautiful picture. 
And if you did not want to be recognized, 
perhaps he could disguise you a little, and, 
of course, he would give you the portrait.’’ 

Well, go and bring your Harold here; we 
will see what arrangements we can make.” 

Emily left the room, and returned in a few 
minutes leading Harold by the hand. 

I hear you have a deep design against me, 
Mr. Hart,” Helena began. 

I should be so happy, it would be such a 
great favor to me, if you would allow me to 
paint your portrait,” Harold answered. ^^Is 
it asking too much ? ” 

Emily says you want to put me into a 
picture ; what is it exactly ? ” 

1 want to paint a picture of that scene in 
Iliad where Helen is sitting at the loom weav- 
ing into the web the strifes of Greeks and 
Trojans, and Iris comes to summon her before 
Priam at the Scaean Gate. I cannot read 


202 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Greek as you do, but I know this passage by 
heart. I have found no one yet for Iris ; but 
ever since I have known you, it has been my 
dearest wish to have you sit to me for Helen.’’ 

‘^It would be hard not to make another 
person happy with so small a service,” said 
Helena, kindly. I will sit to you — only not 
too long at a time.” 

^‘Impose your own conditions, and I shall 
be perfectly happy,” cried Harold, joyfully. 

Only if you could let me begin soon.” 

‘^To-morrow, if you like,” returned Helena. 

Accordingly, the following morning, Helena 
having declared herself ready, Harold began 
to draw. 

Be sure you make it pretty enough, Har-^ 
old,” said Emily, looking over his shouldet 
as he made the first strokes. — ^ On Helen’s 

cheek all art of beauty set.’ You see,” she 
added with a blush to Helena, I have not been 
studying your Shakespeare’s sonnets in vain.” 

I wish you would call me by my name,’" 
said Helena, with a winning smile. “ I am no^ 
what the Germans call a ^ respects-person,’ and \ 
hate unnecessary titles. I have involuntarily 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


203 


fallen into a habit of calling you Emily ; call 
me Helena, will you?^’ 

Emily was surprised. Her education had 
taught her never to forget a difference in age 
and the outward forms of respect due from a 
younger to an older person. To her, Helena’s 
superior years seemed to place her, in some 
respects, on an unattainable height ; but her 
surprise was exceeded by the pleasure that 
Helena’s proposal caused her. 

Of course, I am only too happy to have 
you call me by my name, though that is no 
reason why I should be allowed to make use of 
yours. Still, if you wish it, I will try, my 
dear Helena,” she finished, shyly. 

Thank you, my dear Emily,” said Helena, 
with her kindest smile ; now let us seal the 
compact.” 

Rising from her seat and folding Emily in 
her arms, she kissed her, after the foreign" 
fashion, on both cheeks. 

There ! an important point is settle 
said, laughing; ^^and I am relie’'^ 

Mr. Hart, please go on.” 

Harold went on, then and 


204 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


ing his eyes upon the enticing beauty before 
him, as he might have gazed upon some rare 
flower, with no thought of gathering it for 
himself, but joyful at being permitted to share 
in the delight it caused. The sitting, though 
short, occurred daily. Very often the young 
artist was left alone with his beautiful model, 
sometimes Emily was present. Sometimes she 
read aloud to the others ; more often the three 
talked together, Helena taking pleasure in 
entertaining and instructing her younger com- 
panions from the stores of her rich experience, 
disclosing to them more and more the treasures 
of her fine mind. These hours grew to be the 
most delightful which the friends passed 
together ; and if there were danger in them, 
if pain and fever lurked beneath the outer 
forms of joy and repose, two of the three were 
unconscious of the fact, while the third drew a 
‘^hick veil across her clearer vision, preferring 
'^ness to sight. Indeed, Helena could not 
’ er a time, even in the golden days with 
when she had so long lived in such 
of simplicity and poetry. 

rer and sweeter than any she 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


205 


had ever known, except her love for Cameron 
himselt, filled the hours for her with an indes- 
cribable joy. Harold, whose artistic instincts 
were gratified and fascinated by his surround- 
ings, and whose heart was inflamed with a 
feeling not yet acknowledged to itself, drifted 
on as in a dream, — blissfully, supremely happy. 
Only once a shade of sadness seemed to come 
over him. He and Helena were alone together 
one morning, and she had laughingly asked 
him if painting her portrait required quite 
such prolonged scrutiny of her countenance. 

Forgive me for staring you out of counte- 
nance,” Harold answered, with a touch of 
melancholy in his voice. It is not for the 
picture, it is for myself. I am thinking of the 
time when these divine days shall be numbered 
with the past, when you and I shall be 
parted beyond recall; and I would fain carry 
away every line of your perfect face engraven 
on my brain. You need not mind the simple 
truth, you know. You cannot be flattered.” 

Why need we part ? ” came in a whisper 
from Helena. 

Because,” replied Harold, apparently un- 


206 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


conscious of the possible significance of the 
question, ^‘because our paths lie as far apart 
as daylight and darkness ; because, they say, 
everything fair and dear must, of its own na- 
ture, come to an end.” 

Ah ! ” cried Helena, with a movement as if 
she were shaking off a burden ; such a speech is 
more worthy of me than of you, who always take 
the high-minded view of things. ^ Tout casse, 
tout lasse, tout Well, at any rate, the 

end is not yet. Do not let us spoil this perfect 
summertide by any shadow of coming sorrow.” 

The increasing intimacy between Helena 
and Harold added no drop of bitterness to the 
cup of Emily’s content. On the contrary, it 
was rather a justification for the division of 
her heart between the calm security of her 
affection for her lover and the passionate, ro- 
mantic admiration a young girl will often feel 
for a somewhat older woman 

Harold,” she said, one morning, when they 
had left Helena and the young man stood 
cleaning his brushes before putting them away ; 

it was I who used to be so enthusiastic about 
Mrs. Raimond, — Helena, I mean, — at first. 
What do you think of her now?” 


I SIGNORI BIANCHI. 


207 


‘‘ She is like the sea,” said Harold, slowly. 

In the matter of instruction and learning she 
surrounds one on every side, as the sea does an 
island ; and she suggests even more than she 
imparts. But this is nothing to the wealth of 
her nature — that which cannot be learned or 
added to by instruction. She makes the im- 
pression of an elemental force of nature in 
league with all the rest we have found here. 
Oh ! what days and nights we have had ! But 
it is a fact that both sunlight and starlight are 
brighter when she is with us.” 

He paused, — surprised, almost appalled at his 
own earnestness. It was the first time that he 
had attempted to put his feeling into words. 

Emily laid her hand affectionately upon his 
shoulder. No shadow of mistrust or jealousy 
appeared upon her brow. In the generosity of 
her nature and the excess of her own adora- 
tion, she exulted that her friend should receive 
such praise. 

I am so glad you do her justice,” she said, 
triumphantly. I am quite of your opinion, 
only you can express it so much better than I.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 

The glorious month of June trailed its 
shining garments across the globe, and almost 
before anyone was aware of it, July, even 
more radiant and glowing, was at hand. 

By a caprice of nature not usual in the 
climate of Southern Italy, the month began 
with a series of cool days of which the 
Cocumella party determined to take advantage 
by making some long-contemplated excursions. 
In the cool of a July evening, they drove to 
Pompeii, where they visited the ruins by 
moonlight and passed the night in the queer 
little Hotel del Sole. Here, where the glass 
doors serving for windows stand open con- 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


209 


tinually, the peacocks have free access to one’s 
bedroom, and one may occasionally find some 
hanger-on of the establishment making free 
with one’s toilet articles ; but the Sole’s 
Lagrime Cristi grown on the slopes of Yesuvius 
is the best of the moderate-priced wines of 
that name, and the little cluster of buildings 
and fantastic garden of the Sole have long 
formed an oasis of probity in the Neapolitan 
desert of peculation. 

Before six o’clock on the following morning 
the friends were on their way to Amalfi. The 
road soon turned inland, passing through 
village after village, where, in spite of the early 
hour, bed and breakfast had evidently long 
been disposed of, and the inhabitants were 
pursuing their daily avocations with the same 
zeal that one might find in other countries at a 
late hour of the forenoon. Men sat in the 
doorways making shoes ; half-clad children 
ran about the streets ; women, seated on th^* 
doorsteps or in chairs at the side of the ro^i^ 
knitted, or drew the threads from them dis- 
taffs, or submitted the arrangement their 
coiffure to helpful friends. The maiTi^et-places^ 


210 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


were crowded. Knots of men stood about 
lazily, market-women sat behind piles of fruit 
and vegetables, gossiping with their cus- 
tomers; and now and then a flock of goats 
would come scrambling past on their way to 
pasture. The entire population was in the 
streets. These people hardly use their houses 
except as sleeping-places, or as refuges during a 
storm. Doors and windows stood wide open, 
and in each room one might see a neatly made 
bed, a deal table covered with cups and 
saucers and a brass candlestick, and on the 
walls colored prints of saints, a crucifix and a 
vessel of holy water. 

At Vietri the road strikes the sea again, 
proceeding in a series of bold undulations 
along the coast to Amalfi. On the beaches 
men and women were sifting grain and bear- 
ing it away in baskets ; sleek bronze-colored 
boys and youths ran in and out of the water 
or dove from boats dancing upon the waves ; 
iajil-boats came to land and row-boats put off 
from shore, while, in the distance, the white 
sails off fishing-craft glistened in the sunlight. 
Idlers lay in the shadow of the boats drawn up 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


211 


on the beach or, face downwards, on the sands, 
and an incessant clatter of tongues mingled 
with the sound of the breaking waves and the 
whistling of the wind. 

Before noon the party were settled in their 
quarters in the upper Capuccini Hotel, perhaps 
unsurpassed in Europe for picturesqueness, 
originality and beauty of situation. 

Late in the afternoon the younger people 
mounted on donkeys to Ravello, a village high 
above Amalfi, where an Englishman, Mr. Reed, 
has long been the owner of the old Rufalo Pal- 
ace, formerly the property of popes and kings. 
Visitors are permitted to enter his garden — a 
bower of roses — and to enjoy from its terraces 
one of the most exquisite views which the 
Mediterranean Coast affords. 

As our friends descended at evening, women 
— bent double beneath enormous loads of hay 
and grass — began to pass them at a gait 
between a trot and a run. 

In this region the men are sailors or fisher- 
men, and the land-labor devolves almost en- 
tirely upon the women. During the winter 
they ascend the mountains at evening, and 


212 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


pass the night in cutting and collecting the 
frozen snow used in the summer instead of ice. 
At sunrise they descend to deposit their loads 
in storehouses provided for the purpose, or 
carry it to the boats on which it is transported 
to Naples and the neighboring towns. 

The following day was devoted to a visit to 
the ruined temples of Paestum, and the night 
passed at La Cava, a pretty little nest among 
the hills. The next evening, after a late 
dinner, the party started on their homeward 
drive. 

The fete of a favorite miracle-working Ma- 
donna was made the occasion of a great illu- 
mination and display of fireworks throughout 
this part of the country. On cords stretched 
across the road were suspended rows of tum- 
blers filled with oil, on which floated lighted 
wicks ; on scaffolding in the squares hung the 
same sort of primitive lamps, grouped in the 
shape of hearts and pyramids. As it grew 
dark, the vicinity of each town was heralded 
by showers of stars and the whizzing golden 
serpents of ascending rockets; and as with 
cries of Guai ! Guai ! ” the coachman urged 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


213 


his horses at a frantic pace through the 
crowded streets, the trees and houses loomed 
before them red and green and lilac in the 
reflection of the Bengal lights. At last the 
towns were left behind, and they passed into 
lonely lanes bordered with vineyards whose 
clustering grape-vines emitted an odor that 
mounted to the head like wine. The perfect 
silence and sweet mystery of a summer night 
enfolded them. Mrs. Wyndham, assured that 
there was no danger to apprehend, dozed in 
her corner of the carriage. Emily, sunk in 
the agreeable lassitude succeeding a novel 
experience, a state in which one wishes that 
the present moment might stretch into eternity 
if thereby one need never move nor speak 
again, — had stolen her hand into that of 
Harold, who, even while returning the pressure 
of the young girl’s fingers, kept his eyes 
fastened upon Helena’s face distinctly visible 
in the moonlight. 

Emily,” said Helena, on the day succeeding 
their return, if we are to have a moon at Capri 
w'e must go there to-morrow. Do you feel equal 
to another expedition ? You look a little tired.” 


214 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


She has great circles round her eyes, and 
she seems to me all fagged out/’ interposed 
Mrs. Wyndham. T don’t believe she is fit to 
stir another step.” 

Oh ! mamma, I am perfectly well,” Emily 
protested. It is natural that I should be a 
little tired to-day, but I shall be all right 
to-morrow.” 

Emily would not acknowledge that she could 
not learn to sleep in the daytime, that the early 
rising and late vigils were exhausting her, and 
the relaxing climate undermining her strength. 
Like many, perhaps most young people, she 
feared to curtail one jot of her enjoyment by 
any confession of weakness, and she had gone 
on keeping herself up to the level of her com- 
panions by sheer effort of will and an immense 
expenditure of nervous strength. 

Besides,” she continued, as her mother 
scrutinized her closely, we have seen every 
other place by moonlight, just as we were told 
to do, and I must see Capri by moonlight too. 
Who knows what may happen before next 
month ? And after this there will be nothing 
more to do.” 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


215 


Mrs. Wyndham offered a few more objec- 
tions, but was as usual overruled by her daugh- 
ter. Helena and Emily and Harold started 
for Capri with the Naples steamer, Mrs. W ynd- 
ham preferring to remain at home. 

The deck of the little steamer was crowded 
with passengers, hilarious Italians out for a 
holiday and a few groups of more subdued 
foreigners. A little company of Italian musi- 
cians occupied a central position : two men 
strumming upon a violin and a mandolin, while 
an elderly man sang comic songs in a cracked 
baritone, and a young girl with a rich mezzo- 
soprano voice favored the company with ^^AddiOy 
mia hella Napoli , and other popular melodies. 
Venders of coral and tortoise-shell, Sorrento 
wood-work, silk caps and sashes perambulated 
the deck, recommending their wares in persua- 
sive tones, and engaging in fierce bargaining 
with their compatriots. 

Well, they are good-natured,” said Harold, 
as, after accepting six francs instead of twenty 
for an article, one of these men left a purchaser 
with a pleasant smile and a ^ Tante grazie, sig-^ 
nova' 


216 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Indeed, they are,’’ Helena assented ; and 
the best of it is that if you win a just victory 
they respect you for it. Even if you buy 
nothing, they say contentedly, ^ Sara per un 
altra volta^ and continue to smile.” 

As Helena finished speaking, a tall, blonde, 
good-looking man approached her, extending 
his hand. 

Madame Raimond,” he began, ‘‘ what a 
pleasure ! I just caught sight of you from the 
opposite side of the boat. I had no idea of 
meeting you in these regions.” 

Nor did I dream that you were here. Let 
me present you to my friends. — Mr. Aarud, 
Miss Wyndham, Mr. Hart.” 

They all bowed, and Harold made room for 
the new-comer to sit beside them. 

Where have you come from, Mr. Aarud ? ” 
asked Helena. Mr. Aarud is an artist,” she 
continued, and a Norwegian, though you 
would never imagine it. His English is as 
pure as ours.” 

Oh ! madame, you flatter me too much ! ” 
exclaimed Mr. Aarud. W ell, I have been 
in Naples for two or three days, and am on my 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


217 


way back to Capri. I have been staying there 
nearly two months.” 

I have been still longer in Sorrento,” said 
Helena. 

Why, Madame Raimond, have you deserted 
Capri for Sorrento ? You used to rave about 
our island.” 

I will tell you the reason of my desertion. 
I came down here tired out and wanting to be 
alone. There is more ^ society ’ in Capri than 
in Sorrento, you know, and I know some of the 
English residents. I could not have remained 
in concealment there. Besides, although Capri 
is infinitely preferable for a winter residence, 
Sorrento is cooler in summer.” 

Now you will have to trust yourself to my 
discretion,” said Mr. Aarud, smiling. 

Oh ! now the danger is past. There is no 
one left whom I fear to meet. Where are 
you staying, Mr. Aarud?” 

I have got another fellow with me, — 
Svendsen, the composer, — perhaps you remem- 
ber him. I left him in Naples. He will be 
awfully sorry not to see you, for I suppose you 
do not mean to stay ? ” 


218 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Oh, no. We have only come over for a 
day and night.” 

We have a couple of rooms in that old 
Convent of Santa Teresa, where they have the 
Babbingrton Court in the winter. You remem- 
ber.” 

Yes, very well.” 

Our apartments are large, and there is 
plenty of room for my traps. Svendsen has 
had a piano sent from Naples. W e came home 
one day and found it standing there. I don’t 
know how the people brought it up there ; on 
their heads, I suppose, as they bring everything. 
We take our meals at Pagano’s. I suppose 
you will be going there ? ” 

No. I am going to take my friends to the 
Faraglioni for old association’s sake. I stayed 
there once some time when Pagano’s was 
too full and noisy, and I know the people 
well. Of course, you are not going into the 
grotto ? ” 

No, nor you either, I fancy.” 

Yes. I am going to accompany my friends. 
They have never seen it. They are not such 
old Italians as you and I, although I have done 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


219 


my best to convert them into almost as good 
ones.” 

It took very little effort on your part to 
convert me,” said Emily, smiling. 

And I am sure you have broken down all 
my prejudices and made me an ardent lover of 
your adopted country,” added Harold. 

As they approached the entrance of the Blue 
Grotto, quantities of little boats came out to 
meet the steamer, clustering around it a^sit 
came to anchor. Mr. Aarud assisted his ac- 
quaintances to secure one of the first boats ; 
and incited by the promise of an extra fee, the 
boatman, a smiling, stalwart young fisherman, 
clothed in picturesque rags, and bareheaded, in 
spite of the scorching sun, bent with all his 
might to the oars and sent the little craft spin- 
ning in advance of the others. 

Down, down, sigriori ! ” he cried, as they 
approached the entrance of the grotto. 

Emily crouched beneath the seat of the boat ; 
the other two disposed themselves more com- 
fortably in the stern, in such proximity that 
their breaths mingled. The boat bumped 
against the rocks and a slight shower of spray 


220 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


broke over it. Then came a gurgling of water 
and an exclamation from the boatman as he 
stooped hastily in the bows, and the feat was 
accomplished. 

You may rise, signori’^ said the boatman, 
and they resumed their seats. 

The sight before them was most beautiful. 
The walls, roof and watery flopr of the large 
cave glittered as if incrusted with sapphires, 
and the more accustomed the eye became to 
the atmosphere, the bluer it appeared. 

A murmur of surprise and delight broke 
from the lips of the visitors. 

Oh ! ” cried Emily, how perfectly lovely ! 

I was told I should be disappointed,’’ said 
Harold ; but it is quite as wonderful as I ex- 
pected.” 

Molto hella, la grotta, signorina,^' 

said the boatman, addressing Helena. 

Yes,” she answered, I have seen it much 
less striking. It needs a bright blue day and 
plenty of golden sunshine such as there is now. 
We are here just at the right time, too.” 

But we shall soon be able to see nothing at 
all,” remarked a jovial Englishman, whose 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


221 


boat had entered immediately behind theirs; 
“ there are crowds of people at our heels. Here, 
Giuseppe, Mariano, Giovanni, or whatever your 
name may be 

Paolino, signor interposed the boatman, 
smiling and tossing his curly head. 

W ell, Paolino, bring on the rest of the 
show, that the signori may escape before the 
multitude.” 

Paolino made a sign towards a tiny boat 
lurking in the corner of the grotto ; and its 
occupants, two small boys, rapidly divesting 
themselves of their few garments, plunged into 
the water, beneath which they disported them- 
selves looking very much like antique bronze 
frogs. 

A few minutes later the visitors returned to 
the steamer, and at the close of another half- 
hour everyone was landed upon the little Capri 
pier. This was crowded with women and 
girls, among whom were a few hotel-porters 
and the custom-house officers in uniform. 
Whoever appeared with any luggage in his 
hands was immediately fallen upon by the 
girls and women, his bags and wraps were for- 


222 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


cibly taken from him, while he himself was 
nearly deafened by offers of service in sharp, 
treble voices. 

Here, Marianna,’’ said Mr. Aarud, permit- 
ting his portmanteau to be placed upon the 
head of one woman, while two or three others 
took possession of the luggage of Helena and 
her friends ; run and secure the two-horse 
carriage — if you will allow me to share your 
carriage,” he continued, turning to his compan- 
ions. 

They were soon driving up the carriage- 
road, which, winding in loops and curves be- 
tween the orange and lemon gardens, connects 
the Grande Marina, or principal beach of 
Capri, with the little town. 

How straight these women are, and how well 
they Avalk ! ” remarked Harold as some peasants 
crossed the road with loads upon their heads. 
^‘Are there always so many of them about ? ” 

Yes, always,” replied Mr. Aarud. When 
I arrived here, four women surrounded me at 
once. I thought I would have my little joke, 
so I asked them, Where are your husbands 
that they let you do all this hard work? ” 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


223 


Husbands, signore ! one of them tittered ; 
there are not many husbands here. Those 
two have no husbands, and ours are over in 
America.” 

The women on this coast seem to do most 
of the work,” said Harold. 

Yes ; they say that most of the houses in 
Capri have been built with stones brought on 
the heads of the women to the place of build-, 
ing. But they seem to thrive fairly well in 
spite of this condition of things, and I have 
ceased to distress myself about it.” 

At the Hotel Faraglioni the ladies were 
assigned adjoining rooms on the ground-floor, 
and after a late lunch Helena persuaded 
Emily to lie down to rest as usual, promising 
to call in time for a proposed afternoon ramble. 

Come into my room, Emily,” she said ; two 
hours later, when tapping at the young girFs 
door, she found her dressed and waiting. 

The view from my window is just a little 
prettier than from yours.” 

Emily followed her friend to the window. 
Immediately beyond the path beside the house, 
vineyards and olive-groves sloped downwards 


224 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


to the sea. Among them, to one side, rose the 
gray walls of the Certosa or Carthusian mon- 
astery, now used as a military prison. Farther 
to the right, a hill was crowned with the ruins 
of a mediaeval castle, and above and beyond 
this towered the bold cliffs of Anacapri. 

Each place we see seems in some respects 
more beautiful than the last,’’ said Emily, half- 
sighing. There is a certain grandeur about 
this view, quite different from anything we 
have hitherto seen.” 

^^This country is a horn of plenty,” said 
Helena. It is always pouring out new beau- 
ties with a perfect lavishness, and it always 
seems to be assuring you that there is more 
behind. I a^mnot sure but that the Villa of 
Tiberius, where 'we are going now, is the gem 
of all this region. I have ordered a donkey 
for you, Emily. Mr. Hart and I think we can 
walk.” 

I wish I were as strong as you,” sighed 
Emily. 

I Avish you Avere, my dear. I have hardly 
been ill a day in my life, — though I never say 
so without expecting to be stricken down the 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


225 


next day. Fate is always waiting round the 
corner ready to spring upon me.’’ 

Oh ! don’t say that,” cried Emily. “ You 
will make me superstitious, and I have been so 
happy.” 

Helena laughed and led the way to the 
hotel-door, where Harold, the donkey and its 
driver were awaiting them. 

The assent to the so-called villa was fatigu- 
ing, and, arrived at the ruins of the palace^ 
the friends were glad to accept the chairs 
offered them by the hermit who presides over 
a little chapel built upon the site of Tiberius’ 
dwelling, and to sit in silence looking down 
upon the beautiful familiar sight before them. 
They waited until the sun had sunk from sight 
behind Ischia; then, having stopped at the 
Salto di Tiberio ” — the rock from which Tibe- 
rius used to cause offenders to be precipitated 
into the sea — and having refreshed themselves 
with a draught of violet-scented Capri wine, 
they started homeward. Half-way down the 
hill they met Mr. Aarud coming in search of 
them. 

I have been to your hotel,” he said, “ and 


226 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


they told me you had come up here. You 
have had a glorious afternoon, except for the 
heat. I wanted to tell you that the Tarantella 
is to be danced to-night in Morgano’s new hall. 
It is some German’s birthday. You know how 
much they make of such occasions. They have 
arranged it with ^ Peppino,’ and he invited 
me to come and bring my friends.” 

We seem to be always encountering birth- 
days,” said Emily, and she related their expe- 
rience on their arrival at Sorrento. 

I am glad we have happened upon this 
birthday, since it is to procure my friends a 
sight of the Tarantella,” said Helena. “ I 
have been hoping they would see it in Sorrento, 
but there are too few people there now. I am 
very much obliged to you, Mr. Aarud.” 

Do not mention it. I wished they danced 
in costume, but there is not a shred of a na- 
tional dress left wherever a railway or a steam- 
boat has penettated. However, Carmela, one 
of the dancers, is the beauty of the island, and 
Garolina, the other one, is very delicate and 
charming. Besides, you ought to see Mor- 
gano and his beautiful wife, — the Signora 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


227 


Lucia. They own the cafe ^ Zum Kater Hiddi- 
geigei/ named by some German, of course, and 
are very important people. Morgano transports 
our luggage, does our errands and gets our 
money from the Naples banks. I don’t know 
what we should do without him. And he is 
perfectly honest,” he added, impressively. I 
wish you had come here sooner. Miss Wynd- 
ham, when there was more going on, or that 
you would stay longer now,” continued Mr. 
Aarud, walking beside Emily’s donkey and 
laying his hand upon its bridle. “ Most of us 
think there is no place like Capri.” 

I think sometimes that you would enjoy 
it more than Sorrento, Mr. Hart,” said Helena. 

Capri is the paradise of artists. And you 
might have formed acquaintances that would 
have been useful to you in the future.” 

It is always a paradise where you are,” re- 
plied Harold in a low tone ; and what society 
eould have compensated me for yours ? ” 

Helena did not reply ; for at that moment 
Mr. Aarud turned, addressing a remark to her. 

The party, including Mr. Aarud, dined uiidei* 
the vine-covered trellis on the little loggia 


228 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


upon which Helena’s room opened. After 
dinner Mr. Aarud conducted them to Mor- 
gano’s. A goodly number of guests were 
already present, and soon the dancers entered 
and took their places. The men were neatly 
dressed in ordinary fishing-garb, the women in 
full white waists and black bodices, and long 
colored skirts. Both men and women were 
barefooted. 

An enormously fat woman strummed upon a 
mandolin, emphasizing her performance now 
and then by strenuous vocal efforts. The dance 
began. 

The Tarantella consists of several distinct 
movements or rhythms, and a great deal of sup- 
pleness and dexterity is required for an excel- 
lent performance. It is intended to express 
inclination, supplication, coquettish refusal, 
persistence, pursuit and capture. At one 
period the man kneels while the woman dances 
about him, until she throws her handkerchief 
into his lap as a signal that he may rise. At 
another, the woman kneels while the man re- 
volves around her until she rises and flings her- 
self into his arms. 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


229 


After some time the dancers began to shout 
with excitement, and their motions became more 
violent. 

Perhaps we had better go,’’ said Mr. Aarud, 
they will be getting a little wild very soon.” 

The others assented readily. 

Aarud proposed that, as the night was so 
fine, they should walk to the Punta Tragara, a 
short distance beyond the Faraglioni Hotel. 
The others agreed, and Emily found herself 
leading the way with Mr. Aarud. She felt 
sure that he did not desire her companionship, 
yet he seemed to drift continually to her side. 

The little refreshment-room at the Punta 
Tragara was still open, several persons were 
sitting or standing near the steps; one man 
was playing upon a mandohn and breaking out 
now and then into song. 

The sea was bathed in floods of moonlight, 
and a narrow snow-white fringe was visible 
when the water lapped softly the bases of the 
great cliffs. An atmosphere of poetry and 
sensuous beauty enfolded the world. 

The new-comers stood leaning against the 
parapet, listening to the music and watching 


230 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


the transfigured deep ; then they sauntered 
slowly homewards, over the moon-lit path be- 
neath the olive-trees. 

^^This scene is too beautiful to leave,” ex- 
claimed Helena. I really cannot go to bed.” 

You are quite right,” said Emily; but I 
am so tired I cannot keep up any longer. If 
you will excuse me, I will say good-night.” 

^^You are very wise,” said Helena, kissing 
her on the cheek; good-night, my dear.” 

Emily gave her hand to Harold, and bowing 
to Mr. Aarud, passed through Helena’s open 
door into her own room. 

Twenty minutes later, when ready for bed, 
she missed her watch-key, and immediately re- 
membered that it had dropped from her watch- 
chain while she was riding to the Villa of 
Tiberius, and that Harold had picked it up and 
put it in his pocket. Disliking to be without 
any means of knowing the hour, although she 
knew that Helena would call her in the morn- 
ing in time for an early start, she slipped on 
her dress over her night-clothes and retraced 
her steps softly through Helena’s room. 

She stopped instinctively at the open loggia 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


231 


door. Aarud was gone. Harold and Helena 
stood close together, leaning against the para-^ 
pet. 

Mr. Hart, do you believe in presentiments ? 
Helena was asking. 

No,” answered Harold. Why do you 
ask?” 

Because the first night I saw you, when 
you took your place opposite me at the table, it 
was borne in upon me that you were to play a 
role in my life.” 

“ You must always play a role in the lives of 
the people you meet when it is your will to do 
so,” said Harold. You doubtless divined at 
once how great would be your influence upon 
me.” 

No, no, I do not mean that at all,” per- 
sisted Helena ; I knew that you were to be a 
powerful agent in my career. I was as certain 
of it then as I am now that it is coming true.” 

Well, I will tell you,” said Harold slowly f 
if I have little faith in presentiments, I be- 
lieve in spells. You have laid a spell upon me- 
I see through your eyes, I feel with your per- 
ceptions, I live and breathe as you ordain.” 


232 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


‘‘Yet you are always contradicting me/’ ob- 
jected Helena ; “ always taking the opposite 
side in every discussion.” 

“ That is only the last futile resistance of the 
intellect ; the soul is captive. — 1 will make a 
confession to you/’ Harold continued, bending 
yet closer over her ; “ it dates also from the 
first night of our meeting. Do you remember 
my urging Mrs. Wyndham to come to the 
dance ? I did it because you had already laid 
a spell upon me ; because I wanted to be near 
you, to look upon you, to dance with you — 
in the dance at least to hold you in my arms. 
It was a misty, half-unconscious desire ; every- 
thing has been misty and half-unconscious in 
my mind till now. Now the light is beginning 
to break in upon me. Now ” 

He spoke as one awaking from a dream. 

Emily had tried to turn and fly, but she was 
as if rooted to the spot. She could not choose 
but hear, though Harold’s words fell upon her 
heart like the strokes of a keen-edged knife. 
It was as if a thunder-bolt had fallen from a 
perfectly serene sky. In one instant her confi- 
dence, her glad security, her peace, her happi- 


A VISIT TO CAPRI. 


233 


ness lay in ruins. She leaned against the wall 
for support, but she ground her teeth together 
and uttered no sound. 

As Harold paused, a heavy step was heard 
along the corridor leading to the loggia, and 
Aarud appeared at the farther door. 

Helena moved a step or two away from the 
parapet, and Harold uttered an impatient excla- 
mation. 

I have had my talk with your padrone, 
said Aarud in a cheerful tone, obtusely uncon- 
scious of intrusion ; and I just came back to 
say that I will have the carriage ready for you 
at six o’clock. It gets so beastly hot, later, you 
know. When we get back, Mme. Raimond, 
we must take your friends into Pagano’s to see 
the pictures. I wish I could ask you to my 
place, but it is in such horrible confusion.” 

Oh, we should not like to trouble you. 
You are very kind as it is,” Helena answered. 

Capri looks like some Eastern village in this 
moonlight,” said Aarud, advancing to the par- 
apet, while Emily drew back into the conceal- 
ment of the curtain. I say, isn’t it glorious ? 
One ought not to close one’s eyes on a night 
like this.” 


234 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Nevertheless, I shall have to send you gen- 
tlemen away now/’ said Helena. It is long 
past midnight, and ^ there comes a morrow,’ — 
unfortunately perhaps.” 

Emily saw Aarud bow over Helena’s hand, 
saw Harold raise that hand to his lips and im- 
print upon it a lingering kiss. Then she turned, 
fled swiftly across the room and closed her door 
without a sound. 


CHAPTER VII. 


‘‘the JULY NIGHT.” 

Before six o’clock on the following morn- 
ing Helena knocked at Emily’s door and was 
bidden to enter. 

“Here is a cup of coffee for you, Emily,” 
she said ; “ they brought it all to my room. 
How nice of you to be all ready ! Why, 
child ! ” she exclaimed, in a tone of deep 
concern, as Emily turned her haggard face 
upon her. “ What is the matter with you ? 
Are you ill ? ” 

A bitter smile played for an instant about 
Emily’s mouth as she looked upon the radiant 
creature before her, — fresh and calm as the 
morning, and looking at that moment the 


236 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


younger of the two. But bitterness faded 
rapidly before intense weariness and abject 
wretchedness. She sat down upon the bedside 
and burst into tears. Helena’s mind reverted 
instantly to her conversation with Harold on 
the previous evening; but she soon decided 
that Emily could not possibly have overheard 
it, and that her present state was due to her 
general nervous and exhausted condition. 

There, there, dear,” she said, seating her- 
self beside Emily and putting her arm affec- 
tionately about the young girl’s neck. Tell 
me what is the matter. Do you feel ill ? 
What will your mother say to us?” 

I shall be better by-and-by,” replied Emily, 
striving to restrain her tears and withdrawing 
slightly from her friend’s embrace. I could 
not sleep. Perhaps it w^as the strange bed, — it 
was not very comfortable, — or I was too tired.” 

Had we not better give up going to 
Anacapri ? The young men can go by them- 
selves. I am afraid it is too much for you.” 

No, no,” cried Emily ; don’t say any- 
thing, I don’t want Harold to know. Perhaps 
he will not notice.” 


‘^THE JULY NIGHT.” 267 

Emily’s one clear idea was the desire to ex- 
cite no suspicion of her fatal knowledge. In 
spite of the misery she endured, she was capable 
of little resentment against her friends. Kecog- 
nizing to the full Helena’s irresistible fasci- 
nation, she hardly accused her of having 
exercised it deliberately or blamed her lover 
for having yielded to it. It was, as he had 
said, a spell, a fatality. She had no strength 
of pride or indignation with which to meet the 
blow. She was simply crushed. 

In this mood she permitted Helena to give 
her her coffee and to brush her hair ; then 
she bathed her eyes, and the two young 
women went forth to meet Mr. Aarud and 
Harold. 

Harold did observe Emily’s altered appear- 
ance, but, being in a mood of unnatural, 
excited gaiety, v/as willing enough to accept 
her explanation of a sleepless night and over- 
fatigue. Emily herself made strenuous efforts 
to recover her outward composure, succeeding 
to an extent that was really extraordinary in 
one of her age and temperament. 

It is difficult to describe the exquisite beauty 


238 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


of the morning upon the southern Italian 
coast in the summer-time. A soft film lies upon 
the hillsides, veils the islands and the Naples 
shore, and rests, like a breath upon a mirror, 
over the delicately-tinted surface of the sea. 
The sun’s rays, already powerful at six o’clock, 
gild the foliage of the trees and kiss open the 
flower-cups that hold their heads erect, re- 
freshed and beautified by the cool moisture of 
the nightc The smoke of Vesuvius rises like 
a pillar into the sky ; below the cone, the 
mountain is wreathed with cloud. After a 
time a gentle breeze rises, blowing away the 
mist and rippling the waters of the bay. 

It makes me think of the creation,” said 
Mr. Aarud as they were driving up the 
Anacapri Road. It looks as if everything 
had been made anew last night while we 
slept.” 

So, you see, sleep has its uses, after all, as 
I can testify to my cost,” said Emily, with a 
faint smile. 

Their driver who, as usual, had permitted 
a ‘^brother,” wishing to reach Anacapri; to 
occupy the vacant seat on the box — informed 


THE JULY NIGHT. 


239 


a 


» 


his inglesi that he had another brother who 
owned a fine sail-boat, and who would be glad 
to convey the signori back to Sorrento that 
afternoon. He was sure there would be a 
good breeze, and if not, they would have four 
men and could be rowed across. 

^^What do you say, Mr. Hart?’’ asked 
Helena. We could start late, and it would 
give Emily a good chance to rest this after- 
noon. Perhaps we could carry her back to 
her mother in rather better condition. Be- 
sides, it will be much cooler than if we take 
the steamer at half past two.” 

Harold and Emily agreed that it would be 
an agreeable change of programme, and Mr. 
Aarud promised to go down to the beach to 
inspect the boat and to make sure that every- 
thing was comfortable and in readiness for 
their departure. 

Accordingly, they let the steamboat start 
without them, and towards six o’clock, with 
Aarud waving adleux from the pier, they 
pushed off from the Capri sands in their own 
boat, with four rowers and a boy at the helm. 

They were pulled straight out beyond the 


240 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


horns of the land, and then the sails were 
hoisted. A light but somewhat squally breeze 
was blowing and the boat rose and fell on 
short though not violent waves. Harold and 
Helena were in the stern. Emily insisted on sit- 
ting farther forward in the boat where she could 
lean over the side and, as the boat plunged, 
trail her fingers in the cool water. The others 
had been especially considerate of her through- 
out the day, and now they offered no oppo- 
sition to her fancy. She seemed better since 
her afternoon rest, and their anxiety concern- 
ing her was allayed. Their mood became 
very gay, stimulated by the rapid motion, the 
songs of the sailors, and their merry shouts, 
Allegr ! Allegr ! la signorina vuol ar- 
rivar ! ” 

They were half way across when the order 
was given to put the boat about. 

‘^You must move, signorina^'^ cried the 
skipper, we are going to tack.” One of 
the other men loosened the sail as he spoke. 

Emily, Emily,” called Harold, ^^go over 
to the other side.” 

Emily appeared not to hear. She was lean- 


THE JULY NIGHT. 


241 


(( 


99 


ing far over the side of the boat gazing into 
the water. 

Both Harold and the skipper sprang towards 
her ; but as they did so, a gust struck the boat, 
the sailor holding the sheet let it fly from his 
hand, and the little vessel gave a sudden lurch. 
There were two or three quick plunges, and a 
confusion of flapping sail, and when the boat 
was righted, Emily had disappeared. 

Accidente,’’ exclaimed the skipper through 
his teeth, as with one vigorous pull he tore 
the sail from the mast. 

Take to your oars,’’ he shouted, and 
keep the boat steady. La stupida,^^ he mut- 
tered angrily as he hastily stripped off his 
outer garments. Don’t be frightened,” he 
cried to Helena and Harold, who were both 
ashy pale. 

Harold had tried to throw himself over- 
board in search of Emily, but Helena had 
retained him by a firm clasp. 

^^You can do no good,” she said quickly;, 
that man dives like a fish. — Do you not ? ” 
repeating her speech in Italian. 

Si, signor a , answered the skipper, pulling 


242 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


off his shoes. I will have her up in a minute ; 
don’t be afraid.” And once more admonish- 
ing the men to keep her steady,” he plunged 
into the water. 

Once his head emerged alone ; but in 
another moment he reappeared on the other 
side of the boat, bearing Emily’s dripping 
form in his arms. He and his burden were 
pulled into the boat, the sail was hoisted and 
set, and they were soon skimming over the bay 
once more. 

The whole incident had hardly lasted as 
long as it has taken to describe it. Emily had 
been immersed but for a moment, and as soon 
as the water had run out of her nose and 
mouth she opened her eyes. 

If you only do not take cold ! ” exclaimed 
Helena, wiping the water from Emily’s face 
and hair with a handkerchief. There is no 
use in taking off anything, since you cannot 
be undressed properly. You must lie down in 
the bottom of the boat and we will put over 
you all we have. Fortunately the a*ir is 
warm.” 

A rough blanket was produced from a 


^^THE JULY night/' 


243 


cubby in the bows, and half reclining upon, 
half wrapped in that, Emily lay, covered 
besides with what wraps and outer garments 
they had brought with them. 

How could you be so careless, Emily ? " 
asked Harold severely. Now that the fright 
was over, his principal feeling was one of 
irritation. Nothing but the grossest care- 
lessness could have led to the accident.” 

The sailors seemed to take this view also. 
There was a good deal of low talking and 
muttering among them, and then the skipper 
stepped towards his passengers. 

We think, signore, that in consideration of 
the fright and the delay, and the wetting I 
have had, we ought to have an extra huona 
mano^^ he said, looking keenly from one to 
the other. 

You shall have twenty francs,” returned 
Harold, and I will give the others a franc 
apiece more than was agreed upon, though I 
don’t see what they have done to deserve it.” 

^^We are all companions,” said the man, 
with a deprecatory gesture. Grazie, signore^ 
Towards sunset, the wind died away, and the 


244 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


men took to their oars, pulling silently and 
steadily. The ruffled feelings of the whole 
company were soothed by the influence of the 
hour and scene. Before them lay the table- 
land of Sorrento, — a semi-circular space 
inclosed by hills, along whose slopes little 
villages nestle among the luxuriant olive-groves. 
Here and there a church-tower or the long 
walls of a monastery visible among the other 
buildings. Along the shore, surrounded by 
orange-gardens, stood the bright-colored villas 
and hotels on the edge of walls of rock rising 
in a perpendicular line from the sea. Y esuvius 
stood purple in the sunset light, a thin column 
of smoke issuing from its summit. The west 
was gorgeous with gold and purple clouds, 
from which the blood-red disc of the sun 
detached itself as it dropped towards the 
horizon. The sea, now calm again, was no 
longer sapphire-hued, but opal-tinted — delicate 
pinks and blues, yellows and violets blending 
with each other till the whole bay resembled 
a rainbow-colored shell. The peaks of the 
higher hills behind Sorrento were tinged 
with pink. Gradually the varied colois faded 


THE JULY NIGHT.’’ 245 

away into a delicate uniform blue, and dusk 
had already fallen when the travellers landed 
on the Sorrento shore. 

The sailors carried Emily in their arms up 
the steep ascent to the piazza and placed her 
in a carriage. 

We have earned our franc now, signore,^' 
said one of the men, turning to Harold with 
such a winning smile that no one could have 
refrained from smiling in return. 

In consequence of the lateness of the hour, 
Mrs. Wyndham had abandoned all expecta- 
tion of the party’s return that evening, and 
was calmly eating her dinner when they 
reached the Cocumella. Harold hastened to 
the dining-room to inform her of the accident 
while Helena assisted Emily to climb the stairs, 
followed by the cook, the chambermaid and 
various children and female adjuncts of the 
establishment. 

A little later, Mrs. Wyndham came rushing 
to the bedroom she and Emily shared together, 
as fast as her unwieldy proportions would 
permit. 

Good heavens ! ” 


she cried, throwing her 


246 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


arms round her daughter’s neck; ^‘how did 
this ever happen ? I shall never dare to let you 
out of my sight again if people cannot take 
care of you any better.” 

Nobody is to blame but myself, mamma,” 
said Emily. It was my own carelessness. If 
I had paid attention, it would not have hap- 
pened.” 

Oh, dear ! oh, dear ! You will be sick, I 
know you will. We must send for the doctor 
directly.” 

Nonsense, mamma, I am not going to be 
ill, and I am not going to have a doctor. I 
only want to get off my wet things and lie 
down,” declared Emily, whom Helena was 
already divesting of her outer garments. 

The room was cleared of the superfluous 
women and the young girl undressed, rubbed 
and put to bed. Helena, who had disappeared 
for a few moments, returned, followed by 
Josephine carrying a bowl of beef -tea from 
Helena’s private sources. Emily drank it with 
some effort, and then sinking back upon the 
pillow signified her desire to be quiet. 

Good-night,” said Helena ; I hope we 


THE JULY NIGHT. 


247 


(( 


>> 


shall find to-morrow that all this has done you 
no harm.’* 

Emily made no reply. Helena, stooping 
over the bed, kissed her gently on the cheek. 

I will come and see how she is a little 
later,” she said as she turned to leave the 
room. Now I must repair my own disorder,” 
she concluded, looking at her skirts, which 
were wet and stained with salt water. 

Half an hour later she tapped gently at Mrs. 
Wyndham’s door. Harold, who had been 
walking up and down the corridor waiting for 
her appearance, joined her. Presently Mrs. 
Wyndham came out, closing the door behind 
her. 

^^Well?” asked Helena and Harold in a 
breath. 

She is perfectly quiet,” the old lady 
answered ; she seems to have gone to sleep. 
Oh ! I do hope we shall escape with nothing 
worse than this fright. You must not mind 
what I said about your not taking care of her. 
Of course, I did not mean it ; but one is so 
flurried and anxious, you know, one does not 
know what one says. Still, it was very wrong 


248 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


of me when you have been so kind and done 
all you could for us all along.” Mrs. Wynd- 
ham’s voice faltered a little as she finished 
speaking. 

Helena laid her hand upon the other lady’s 
hand. 

Dear Mrs. Wyndham,” she said kindly; 
^^do not say another word. Of course, I under- 
stand. I have arranged with the padrona to 
let Josephine sleep in the room adjoining 
yours to-night, and if Emily is worse, — which 
Heaven forbid ! — or if you want anything, you 
need only speak to her. She will call me if 
you should need me, and she will let me know 
in the morning how things are.” 

That is kind of you ! ” exclaimed Mrs. 
Wyndham gratefully. That makes it ever 
so much easier for me. Now, don’t let me 
detain you any longer. You must want your 
dinner badly enough, both of you. You look 
as if you were going to a party, Mrs. Raimond, 
and so does Harold, too, for that matter.” 

I had to change my clothes,” said Harold, 
blushing slightly, they were half drenched.” 

Why, of course ! I am not finding any 


THE JULY NIGHT. 


249 


C( 


>» 


fault. Besides, it is Mrs. Raimond who is so 
particularly fine.” 

Helena was indeed somewhat strikingly 
attired in a cloud of white muslin and lace 
with skirts that swept the ground. The 
sleeves fell only to the elbow, and her beauti- 
ful shoulders were covered but by a film of 
lace and muslin. A tea-rose was fastened in 
her hair, and a cluster of roses lay among the 
mazes of lace upon her breast. 

It is so warm I wanted to wear something 
thin,” she said quietly, and Josephine had 
nothing but this ready for me. She is grow- 
ing very lazy here with nothing to do.” 

I always thought a maid would be more 
bother than she was worth,” remarked Mrs. 
Wyndham; but they are good for some 
things sometimes. I am glad enough for 
yours to-night. I cannot help feeling anxious 
about Emily. Well, I really must not keep 
you another minute. Thank you again a 
thousand times. Do not come back again, 
Harold ; there is no need of it, and I shall go 
to bed now myself.” 

They all shook hands ; — Mrs. Wyndham 


250 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


re-entered her room, and Helena and Harold 
repaired to the dining-room. 

You do not think Emily is really going to 
he ill ? ’’ Harold asked, with some anxiety, as 
they seated themselves at the table. 

No, I trust not ; the water was not cold. 
She is very tired. She needs a good rest.” 

Her falling in was so silly, so unneces- 
sary,” continued Harold ; I cannot help feel- 
ing provoked about it.” 

That is so like a man. When anything 
happens, — at least anything which might 
possibly have been avoided, — they feel such 
resentment that they usually begin to scold 
instead of sympathizing.” 

Perhaps you are right,” said Harold, 
laughing. 

His mind being relieved, the subject of 
Emily’s condition was dismissed, and he and 
his companion fell again into the mood of 
overstrained gaiety which they had exhibited 
at intervals all day. 

Neither of them had much appetite, and the 
dinner soon came to an end. Helena pushed 
back her chair. 


THE JULY NIGHT. 


251 




>» 


Shall we go to the party now ? ’’ she 
asked, smiling, or should you say that it had 
begun already?” 

It has been ^ a party ’ all day for me,” 
answered Harold. Indeed, you make a fes- 
tival of everything, wherever we go. But if 
you are ready, I should like to get out of doors 
again. To-night one realizes that one is in the 
south.” 

Let us go, then,” said Helena, leading the 

way. 

On the terrace, where chairs had been 
placed for them, Josephine served coffee. 

Now I call this pleasant,” said Helena, 
sipping the fragrant beverage. I like a 
combination of intellectual and material en- 
joyment. It is nice to be just tired enough to 
appreciate a comfortable chair and a cup of 
coffee, yet fresh enough not to lose any of the 
effect of this heavenly view.” 

^^I never knew what paradise meant till 
I came here,” sighed Harold. I think we 
must be slow to learn at home.” 

And then our crowning night, — the July 
night,” quoted Helena, under her breath. 


252 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


What did you say ? ” asked Harold. 

His companion did not reply. 

Josephine came to take the cups. 

^^You may go to bed/’ said her mistress, 
I shall not want you any more to-night.” 

Ah ! you mention the word bed,” ex- 
claimed Harold, ruefully. It is very early ; 
surely, you will not send me away yet? ” 

No, no ; do not go,” Helena replied, eag- 
erly extending her hand as if to detain him, 
and making a movement which brought her 
chair nearer his. Did you ever see a more 
perfect night ? Where could one find any- 
thing like this on northern shores ? ” 

It would have been uncomfortably warm 
but for a light breeze which now and then 
rustled the leaves of the grape-vines and stirred 
gently the branches of the orange and olive 
trees, though it was not powerful enough to 
affect the tall pine-trees, standing immovable 
like warders of the land. 

In the clear sky the thickly clustered stars 
hung like jewels, the evening-star — shining 
wdth a brighter, purer radiance than the rest — 
casting a long, golden trail across the quiet 


THE JULY NIGHT. 


253 


(( 


sea. The late moon had not yet climbed 
above the hills. The luminous line of the 
Naples lamps glittered on the opposite coast. 
V esuvius stood dark and mysterious — a rest- 
less glow on its summit, and to one side show- 
ing where a stream of lava was issuing from its 
crater and pouring down its flank. The orange 
trees had long since shed their blossoms and 
the new fruit had begun to form ; but now, 
instead of the intoxicating fragrance of the 
orange-flowers, the air was freighted with the 
strong odor of the young grapes and the per- 
fume of the late sweet-scented garden-plants. 
In the intervals, when the breeze ceased to 
rustle the leaves about them, the two friends 
on the terrace could hear the ripple of the 
water on the little beach below. Now and 
then the sound of a mandolin and an accom- 
panying voice floated towards them from some 
distant point. 

But to Harold this calm was full of unrest, 
this silence like the prophetic hush preceding 
a thunder-storm. All day long something had 
been in the air, — something that now was 
shaping itseH into a tangible form in his mind. 


254 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


His brain reeled with the weight of the 
thought that arose in it. His veins seemed 
filled with liquid fire. His gaze turned from 
the enchanting scene before him and fastened 
upon the woman at his side. In her he 
recognized the incarnation of his hearths desire. 

Suddenly he uttered an excited exclamation, 
and, moved by a resistless impulse, he leaned 
towards Helena, thrust aside, almost roughly, 
the veiling lace, and pressed his lips upon her 
shoulder. Then terrified, ashamed of his own 
brutality, he drew back, murmuring broken 
words of apology, awaiting, with bowed head, 
the withering rebuke that must follow. But 
for a moment he heard nothing. A slight 
shiver passed over Helena. Her eyes wore a 
triumphant expression and a faint smile hov- 
ered about her mouth. 

In the revulsion of feeling which her silence 
caused the young man, the blood that had 
seemed to stand still in its channels during a 
brief moment of remorse and fear, rushed in a 
great tide all over him, flushing scarlet his 
face and neck. He strove to speak, but emo- 
tion choked his utterance. 


^‘ THE JULY NIGHT.’’ 


255 


He waited, breathless, expectant. 

The trail of the star grew faint, disappeared 
in a flood of light. The moon had emerged 
from the barrier of the hills. Then — like a 
cry of longing, like a psean of victory, in 
the increasing moonlight — a word smote the 
silence of the night, — a word that seemed to 
fill the air and be re-echoed from the earth. 
The pine-trees whispered it to each other, the 
orange-trees tossed it to the olive-trees. It 
w'as repeated in the rustle of the vines, writ- 
ten in golden characters in the heavens, re- 
flected on the bosom of the sea. In letters of 
flame it burned before Harold’s eyes ; like a 
strain of unearthly music, it penetrated his 
brain ; — one word : “ come.” 

In another instant he was in Helena’s arms. 
And still the vines moved softly and the 
trees nodded to each other. Still the waves 
came on to kiss the shore and the stars shone 
peacefully in the sky as if they were looking 
down upon the sealing of a pure and righteous 
bond, instead of one founded on treachery and 
deceit. 


CHAPTEK VIII. 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 

On the following morning, Helena awoke 
before the dawn. Her heart was filled with an 
unutterable content. Her eyes shone with a 
new light. The flush of sleep and joy tinged 
her usually colorless cheek. A smile lit up her 
features. Her hair, all unbraided, rippled 
over the pillows, lying upon the linen like a 
second Golden-fleece. 

For a long time she remained motionless, 
recalling, in imagination, each detail of the 
previous evening’s experience. Over and over 
again, she repeated softly to herself the words 
Harold had uttered. Once more his accents 
seemed to caress her ear. She felt the press- 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


257 


ure of his arms about her, — the touch of his 
lips upon her own. In the measure of her 
bliss there was no recollection of Emily, nor 
any alloy of remorse. In some natures the 
first flood of a sincere passion sweeps away all 
considerations foreign to itself. It is only 
when the after-tide of reflection sets in that 
such natures begin to hesitate, to regard the 
consequences, to weigh the right and wrong. 
Besides, what, to a woman of Helena’s tempera- 
ment and education, were the ties which bound 
her lover or the claims of others on herself? 
She, whose emotional life had been frittered 
away in a series of caprices and flirtations, in 
which there had been no real food for her soul, 
loved now for the first time. Everything was 
forgotten in the new absorbing feeling which 
seemed to bear within itself its own justification. 

The exultation of her mood became too 
great to bear in inaction. She rose, thrust her 
feet into slippers, wrapped herself in a light 
morning-dress, and, passing through the parlor, 
went out upon the terrace. 

The world seemed still half asleep. No one 
was stirring on the premises. The silence of 


258 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


the morning was unbroken, save for the call of 
the swallows as they darted through the air, 
describing now wider, now narrower circles in 
their swift flight. A dull light rested like a 
veil upon all objects. In this light the olive- 
trees gleamed white and spectral amid the 
other foliage. A few cold-looking clouds lay 
on the horizon. Nowhere was there any trace 
of pink such as often heralds the dawn. 

But as Helena watched and waited, the gray 
tone of the landscape gradually vanished. It 
was as if a hand were withdrawing slowly the 
curtain covering some valuable picture. A 
luminous spot in the east above the hills grew 
brighter and brighter. Dazzling rays shot up- 
wards into the sky. Then the all-seeing Eye 
peered, in a halo, over the mountain’s rim, — 
the day awoke. Thus,” she said to herself, 
had the sun of love arisen upon her life.” 
Her past seemed waste and arid in the light of 
this rich and full and thrilling day. As she 
gazed, it seemed to her that a stream, as of 
many waters, passed over her soul, cleansing it 
of its stains. She was filled with humility and 
trembling gladness. Her eyes grew dim with 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


259 


grateful tears. She could have prayed had 
she known to whom or what. She stretched 
out her arms and folded them again upon her 
bosom, as if in that clasp she held the beloved 
form, — 

0 Thou Source of light and power ! Heart 
of the universe 1 Spirit of love ! who or what- 
e’er thou art — if Thou consciously existest and 
canst hear the broken words we utter, I thank 
Thee for this hour,” she said. 

The morning breeze, rising, stirred the foli- 
age of the trees below her and beat the vines 
against the trellis-work. It seemed like the 
echo of her own thanksgiving in which nature 
was joining. 

But the cool air, blowing upon her thinly- 
clad figure, caused her to shiver. She re- 
entered the house. Just then the bell of the 
adjoining chapel began to ring, reminding her 
that it was Sunday morning. Almost at the 
same moment Josephine appeared at the salo7i 
door. 

What is the matter?” cried Helena; ‘‘is 
Miss Emily worse ? ” 

“ I do not think so, madame ; they have not 


260 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


called me, and I have not heard them stirring. 
I came to arrange the room. I thought ma- 
dame would sleep late this morning and I 
should finish before she rose.” 

No, I can sleep no more,” said Helena ; 

you may prepare my bath here — I shall not 
go down to the beach to-day.” 

Josephine assisted her mistress to perform 
an especially careful toilette, for Helena desired 
to render herself as fair as possible in the 
eyes of him she loved. 

Madame is very beautiful to-day,” remarked 
Josephine approvingly as Helena scrutinized 
her appearance in the mirror. 

Robed in pure white, without an ornament^ 
except at her throat a single rose that had 
been a bud the evening before and had blos- 
somed during the night, Helena looked like a 
young girl. Any one, meeting her for the 
first time, might have ascribed to her twenty 
years rather than the thirty-five she counted. 

Her beauty had often worn a more regal 
aspect, never one so winning. 

In the meantime, Harold’s state of mind 
was far different from that of the woman for 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


261 


Tvhom he had conceived such a violent and 
bewildering passion. Divided between the 
intoxication of a brief possession and a remorse 
which all his tumultuous emotion could not 
stifle, he had not closed his eyes, save in a sort 
of lethargy which had fallen upon him when 
the morning was well advanced. All through 
the night his room seemed peopled with shapes 
and images, now beautiful, now fearful to behold. 
Sometimes Helena appeared to stand beside 
his pillow, with eager countenance and out- 
stretched arms. Sometimes, Emily’s face, pale, 
reproachful, floated in the air. He rose at 
last as weary and exhausted as if he had been 
engaged in a severe, physical contest, half- 
resolved to throw himself upon Helena’s 
generosity ; to appeal to her against herself. 

She had been expecting him for some time, 
when his step sounded in the corridor outside 
her door. 

Come in,” she said in an unsteady voice, 
in answer to his knock. 

The young man entered. 

The first meeting of any two persons after a 
powerful explosion of feeling, is often embar- 


262 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


passing, generally decisive of the future. Will 
the colors seen by candle-light look the same 
by day ? ’’ Can the threads be taken up where 
they were dropped ; may the poem’s next 
strophe be repeated? Or are the tints grown 
confused and dull ? Has the skein become 
tangled, the musical measure broken and for- 
gotten? Helena, made humble by love, now 
felt a sudden dread of the reaction that 
might have swept over her lover. He looked 
pale and haggard. As her glance rested on 
him, a shadow fell upon her morning joy : her 
heart turned cold within her. 

A flush overspread Harold’s face as he met 
Helena’s eyes, before which his own dropped 
like a guilty person’s. For an instant, neither 
could speak ; hut Helena recovered herself 
quickly. 

Good-morning, dear,” she said simply, 
advancing towards him with extended hands. 

The gentle tone of her voice came like a 
drop of balm to the young man’s over-bur- 
dened heart. Tears, which were full of relief, 
gathered in his eyes. In the mist that veiled 
his sight the vision of his fault was for the 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


263 


moment obscured. He took Helena into his 
arms and kissed her eyes and lips. My 
love/’ he whispered, how sweet ! how beauti- 
ful you are 1 ” 

Darling ! ” she answered passionately as 
she laid her head upon his breast. 

A light tap at the door caused them to 
spring from each other’s embrace. 

It was Josephine again. 

Pardon, madame,” she said, but it seems 
after all that Miss Emily is ill. They have 
sent for the doctor, and Madame Wyndham 
wishes to know if you will be kind enough to 
come and interpret for her.” 

Certainly, I will come directly. — I wonder 
what this means,” she continued, turning to 
Harold. had no idea Emily would be 

really ill. I thought her only fatigued.” 

‘^Yes, you said so — last night. Helena, 
you do not suppose that I — that she — that 
we have this to answer for ? ” 

But Helena was already leaving the roo^a. 

She did not reply, nor did he repe*-t his 
question as he followed her in the direction of 
Mrs. Wyndham’s apartment. 


264 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Helena found Mrs. Wyndham agitated and 
alarmed. Emily had passed a restless night 
and had awaked in a high fever. Mrs. 
Wyndham had lost no time in sending for the 
doctor before summoning Helena herself. 

The doctor arrived speedily, — a white- 
haired man with a red nose that seemed to 
betray an intimacy with the products of the 
Sorrento vines. He was dressed with scrupu- 
lous neatness, and wore dark-green gloves, one 
of which he removed to feel the patient’s pulse. 

Having terminated his examination of the 
young girl, he proceeded glibly to acquaint 
Helena with his conclusions.' 

The signora,^' with a wave of the hand 
towards Mrs. Wyndham, need feel no alarm.” 
The signorina was not so very ill. As this 
signora, to whom he had the honor of speak- 
ing, doubtless knew, in his country some 
fever accompanied almost every form of dis- 
ease. This was merely a case of prostration. 
tV signorina had over-taxed her strength. 
Kepos6^ and the remedies he should prescribe 
would restpre her within a short time. Then, 
having writt^^n his prescriptions and given 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


265 


certain orders which Helena translated to Mrs. 
Wyndham, he rose to go, casting at the same 
time such a significant glance at Helena that 
she followed him from the room. 

Of course, I do not know ; but it seems to 
me,” said the shrewd physician, closing the 
door behind them, that some mental anxiety 
may have contributed to produce the signo- 
rina’s malady. I hear she is engaged to be 
married.” (Of course, the Wyndhams’ entire 
history, or as much of it as was known, had 
been imparted to Dr. Agostino, by the messen- 
ger sent to fetch him.) Well, I advise you 
to keep the lover out of the way, for the 
present. I repeat : the case is not serious, but 
excitement must be avoided. I trust to you, 
dear lady, to see that my orders are obeyed.” 

^^What more did he say?” inquired Mrs. 
Wyndham anxiously opening the door again 
as she heard the doctor’s departing step. 

Nothing new,” was the reply. That 
there is no danger, that she must be kept as 
quiet as possible, and had better see only you 
and me, — not even Mr. Hart, for the pres- 
ent.” 


266 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


To Harold, to whom Helena had repeated 
the doctor’s injunctions, judiciously suppress- 
ing his suspicion of some mental anxiety,” 
Emily’s illness, when he found that it was not 
of an alarming character, came almost as a 
relief. By it he was spared the reproach of 
her presence, spared also the acting of a ^ 
part. He should gain time, he told himself, 
— time to consider his present position, to 
decide what measures it behooved him to take 
for the future. 

All along he had intended no disloyalty to 
Emily. It had not occurred to him until 
very lately that he was falling in love with 
another woman. To him, as to Emily herself, 
Helena had seemed almost as a creature of 
another sphere ; — whose superior wisdom ren- 
dered doubly delightful and profitable the 
hours passed in her society. He had rejoiced 
in her beauty as an artist may in that which is 
without blemish. He, like Emily herself, had 
felt the full force of her fascination ; like 
Emily, he had conceived for her a sort of 
adoration, as fbr “ something afar from the 
sphere of our sorro^ ; ” but that these feelings 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


267 


were leading to a more intimate, personal one, 
or that Helena could regard him as other than 
a tolerable companion, had not crossed his 
mind. Helena’s increasing warmth of manner 
towards him, he had ascribed to her natural 
kindliness and to the freedom from restraint 
induced by constant companionship. When 
suddenly a strange convulsion had swept over 
his heart and the light had begun to break 
in upon him,” even then perhaps the senti- 
ment might have been stifled or at least dis- 
avowed and finally overcome, had not the force 
of circumstances, Emily’s absence and Helena’s 
temptation of him, combined to bring things to 
a crisis. 

But if, with effort, one can push away an 
untasted cup, how much more difficult is it to 
remove it from the lips when the first draught 
has been quaffed. His whole being thirsted 
for more. On the other hand, in spite of a 
brief frenzy, one does not break easily with the 
habits of thought which have for years been 
the guide to conduct. Harold abhorred his 
own treachery. He had fallen from his former 
estate of truth and honor, but he despised him- 


268 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE.. 


self for having fallen. He was tormented by 
remorse for the lie his life had become. Be- 
sides, there were moments when it did not 
seem to him that he loved Emily less because 
he loved Helena more. The passion he felt 
for Helena was so different from anything 
Emily had ever inspired in him that his senti- 
ment towards the latter might have been 
called unchanged. That Helena was free, it 
did not occur to him to doubt. In spite of 
Mrs. Wyndham’s original scepticism, the fact 
of her widowhood had been generally accepted. 
Not that she had ever distinctly affirmed it, but 
she had tacitly allowed it to be inferred. If 
Raimond were alive, his wife’s whole conduct 
and bearing would have been different, Harold 
believed. He gave Helena credit for a sincer- 
ity equal with his own. He was both wrong 
and right. She was perfectly sincere in her 
love for him, but she had read his heart better 
than he himself had read it. She had known 
for a long time that he loved her, but had 
been content to wait, doing nothing to hasten 
any avowal until the fitting moment came : at 
that moment regarding nothing but the bliss 


STRUGGLES. 


269 


of loving and being loved. But Harold, in 
the whole course of his simple existence, had 
never even imagined such an entanglement as 
the present. He stood lost and bewildered 
between the conflicting demands on his con- 
science and heart. On one side were loyalty 
to his word and the tie of years ; on the other, 
Helena’s late-born, imperious claim. To leave 
Emily was to bring distress upon her, shame 
upon himself. To break with Helena was to 
lay upon his soul a burden greater, it seemed 
to him, than he could bear. Often he told 
himself that he was not worthy of Emily’s 
affection ; yet how could he bear to confess to 
her that he was no longer the man whom she 
had loved ? Sometimes he believed that his 
moral vision, his strength of purpose would 
return to him could he but fly from Helena’s 
influence ; but flight was not only cowardly but 
impossible. At other times he acknowledged 
to himself that she had the strongest right to a 
voice in whatever decision he should make, and 
again he determined to trust to her generosity 
and seek from her aid and counsel. But in 
Helena’s presence such resolutions vanished. 


270 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


The charm she exercised was too complete 
to be broken. Then he called himself weak 
and childish. Why could he not accept, as so 
many others would have done, without an 
after-thought, the happiness that lay within his 
grasp ? Yet he could not. Hardly did he 
leave Helena’s side when the old remorse 
returned. The goads of conscience were not 
lightened by becoming habitual. 

A great restlessness came upon him. The 
hours he could not pass in Helena’s society 
were spent in roaming aimlessly about the 
country. He neither read nor painted. The 
portrait was laid aside. 

Helena herself was always present at the 
doctor’s visits to Emily. She did what she 
could to relieve Mrs. Wyndham; but Emily’s 
manner showed her that the young girl pre- 
ferred to be left alone with her mother. 

At the close of a fortnight Emily was per- 
mitted to sit up for an hour. Then, for the first 
time, she insisted on seeing Harold. Helena, 
at Emily’s request, was present at the interview. 
During the long hours passed upon her bed 
the young girl had had opportunity for reflec- 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


271 


tion. She seemed to herself to have grown 
very old in these two weeks. She felt confi- 
dent of her ability to judge of the present 
relations of her friend and her lover, if this 
were still an appropriate title, when they should 
be brought together in her presence. Her 
manner, as she greeted Harold, was very calm. 
His was confused and agitated. Helena ap- 
peared unembarrassed and at ease, talking in 
her usual pleasant manner. 

The interview was a short one. At its close, 
when Emily had returned to bed and was left 
alone, having persuaded her mother to go 
down to dinner for the first time since her ill- 
ness, she wept bitterly. The change in Harold 
was even more marked than she had feared. 
Yet now, as at the time of her discovery, she 
felt little bitterness towards her lover, little 
towards the woman who had robbed her of his 
heart. Resentment and anger had little place 
in Emily’s breast. She had by nature a 
humble opinion of herself, and her admiration 
of Helena was so complete that she could well 
appreciate the fascination she must exercise 
over others. Helena was brilliant, beautiful. 


272 


A SOKRENTO ROMANCE. 


endowed with every grace and talent; pos- 
sessing, besides, that inexplicable, never-to-be- 
acquired, inborn charm which is stronger than 
all the attractions of genius or education. She 
herself was only an ignorant young creature, 
with no remarkable attribute, either of mind or 
person, no recommendation save a desire to 
learn, and a heart overflowing with good-will. 
It was easy to see where a choice between her 
and Helena would lie. It was only natural 
that Harold should swerve from his loyalty to 
her. Perhaps it was only natural that Helena 
should care for him. He, too, was talented 
and beautiful. They were fitted for each 
other. Yet she might have left him for me,” 
cried poor Emily ; she who has everything 
might have left me my one treasure. What 
have I done that I should suffer so ? ” she re- 
peatedly asked herself, struggling blindly with 
that blindest of problems, — the wherefore ? ” 
of human fate. Her cheerful philosophy had 
vanished. The present seemed all the harder 
to bear because the past had been so bright. 
During her illness she had almost hoped that 
she should die. That would be the simplest 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


273 


solution of the difficulties she foresaw. But 
now she ‘was recovering. If, as she believed, 
Harold had ceased to love her, sooner or later 
there must come some explanation between 
them. Well, she would endeavor to accept 
whatever burden he might lay upon her, but 
she could not go to meet it. She could give 
him no aid. When the break came, it must 
come from him alone. 

Day after day went by. Her convalescence 
was very slow. She hastened her recovery by 
no effort of her will. What would returning 
health bring to her? Her hope was broken, 
her life become a desert place. Like all young 
people, Emily believed that no trial had ever 
equalled this one imposed on her ; imagined, in 
perfect sincerity, that neither time nor circum- 
stance could heal the wound inflicted on her 
heart. 

In the meanwhile, Helena — perhaps partially 
divining also the tormented condition of Emily’s 
mind — was painfully aware of the struggle 
taking place in her lover’s breast. She was not 
ungenerous. Her former victims had walked, 
open-eyed, into the net of her seduction. 


274 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Perhaps they had even fancied themselves 
the conquerors, believed that she succumbed 
to their fascinations. But now the case was 
wholly different. Knowing from the first 
whither she and her young companion were 
drifting, she had indeed done little to hasten 
the denouement^ but neither had she done any- 
thing to arrest the tide of events. She had, 
however, made one horrible miscalculation, or 
rather she had not realized in time the inno- 
cence of the man with whom she had to deal. 
Not until within these last few days had she 
fully appreciated the guilelessness of his heart. 
At sight of the young man’s unhappiness at his 
own error, far smaller than hers, she recognized 
a degree of high-mindedness, conscientious 
feeling, simple goodness, which she had not be- 
lieved to exist in a human soul. And Harold’s 
misery was caused by remorse for his treachery 
towards Emily, and by the knowledge of a fault 
he still believed reparable. What would it be 
when she should make the terrible revelation 
that she was not free to become his? Some 
words Harold had once uttered sounded in her 
memory like the knell of doom. I hope I can 


MENTAL STRUGULES. 


275 


forgive and condone a great many faults, but I 
cannot pardon deceit in any form.” In these 
words lay her condemnation. True, under her 
influence he had turned from the upright path. 
True, the glamor she exercised over him was 
so intense that she felt certain, if she confessed 
the plain truth, relating to him the circum- 
stances of her life and education, reassuring 
him of her love for him, he would forgive her 
everything. His pity and pardon would add 
another element to their bond, insuring its per- 
manence. He might remain near her : one 
follower, more or less, in her train, would ex- 
cite no special comment in the world in which 
she moved. There would still be opportunity 
for a sort of stolen bliss. But, if she succeeded 
in chaining Harold to her side, his whole nature 
would, she knew now, revolt against his posi- 
tion. Yet parting from her, he would carry 
away a regret which would embitter his whole 
career. Pitying, pardoning, still loving her, 
she was sure he would never forget her. Even 
if he afterwards married Emily, he would bring 
to his wife only a divided heart. For the mo- 
ment the thought of divorce rose before her. 


276 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


but it was soon dismissed. She was not suffi- 
ciently familiar with the laws of France to 
know whether such a means of escape from her 
situation were possible ; and if it were, she knew 
that Harold would be the first to shrink, for 
her, from the publicity it involved. She had 
no other hope. Raimond might almost be 
called in the prime of life. He was not over 
fifty-five, robust and vigorous like most men 
the early part of whose lives has been spent in 
the country in the open air. She had a firm 
conviction that he would reappear some day 
with a second fortune, able in some way to re- 
trieve the past and begin a new career. He 
was a man of successes, possessing a large 
individual share of the aggregate elasticity of 
his native land. The golden vision of a life in 
which her culture and experience should de- 
velop and complete all the latent possibilities 
of Harold’s talent and character, while the 
sweetness and delicacy of his nature refreshed 
and purified her weary soul, had flashed for an 
instant before her mind, only to fade into utter 
darkness. It could not be, — no, it could not 
be ; but how she hated the galling chains that 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


277 


bound her ! What now was the pride of in- 
tellect, what the enjoyments of the senses, the 
almost arrogant appreciation of nature and art, 
compared with her baffled aspiration towards a 
pure and healthful life ? Helena groaned in 
spirit. I have done nothing for the man I 
love but sully his white soul,” she cried. — ^^His 
white soul, ” she repeated to herself. How she 
envied him his possession ! Yet, perhaps, it was 
not too late. Perhaps she could still save him 
from himself as well as from her. His upright- 
ness might become her weapon against herself. 
She would let him believe that she had de- 
ceived him, not only regarding her husband’s 
existence, but regarding her feeling for him- 
self. ’^'He should believe that she had played 
with him, that she w^as but a heartless co- 
quette. He should learn to despise, to abhor 
her. It was a desperate remedy, but she saw 
no other by which to repair the harm she had 
worked. Her new deed should be as the sur- 
geon’s knife, lacerating but to heal. And she 
would do this because she loved Harold ; loved 
him so entirely that since she could not make 
him happy with her, she would make him 


278 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


happy without her. Her conscience was not so 
delicate as to cause her many pangs on the 
score of her want of faith to Emily. Her 
regard for the young girl was after all of so 
shallow a nature that she could have seen her 
happiness sacrificed with only a passing regret. 
But for Harold’s sake, she was glad that Emily 
existed ; glad that wEen she should have wrung 
his soul and cast him from her, other arms 
would be opened to receive him. She could 
bear to see it done ; she could bear any- 
thing for her love’s sake. Sometimes, in the 
frankness of her self-communion, she asked 
herself why she should love Harold. She 
had known many more brilliant, more accom- 
plished men than he, many greater and wiser. 
Did his attraction lie in his very difference 
from the rest ? Was his charm for her merely 
the charm of youth and that of a fresh uncon- 
taminated nature for a worldly sophisticated 
one ? She could not answer her own questions. 
The subtle “ something ” inclining human 
hearts towards each other is ever a mystery. 
But for the first time in her life love had be- 
come to her more than a caprice, more even 


MENTAL STRUGGLES. 


279 


than a passion. She could not wipe out her 
past. She could not make herself free and 
worthy of acceptance ; but she could and would 
ofiPer, as a holocaust to the newly -learned feel- 
ing, her present and future happiness. 

Yes/’ said Helena to herself, while in 
another revulsion of feeling a bitter smile 
played about her mouth ; I must be a second 
Penelope ! What my own hand has wrought, 
that my own hand shall undo ! ” 


CHAPTER IX. 


A RUPTURE AND A RECONCILIATION. 

Helena’s resolution was not formed in a 
day. Many a sad hour, many a sleepless 
night was necessary for its conclusion ; but 
once formed, it was irrevocable. Her manner 
towards her lover became colder. Often, when 
her heart most yearned towards him, she 
forced herself to assume an appearance of 
indifference. Harold, who felt grievously the 
alteration in her bearing, attributed it to her 
irritation at his own hesitation. He could not 
blame her if she desired to see them both freed 
from a position which was daily becoming 
more irksome. He determined to conquer his 
repugnance to a bare discussion of facts, to 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 281 


talk freely and openly with Helena, to abide 
by whatever counsel she had to offer. She 
would be content when she found him ready 
to submit himself completely to her guidance. 
She was so kind, so tender, he thought, that 
she would forgive his sorrow at the grief he 
was about to cause the two friends who trusted 
him. Indeed, he was sure she shared his own 
regret, although she did not owe like him a 
debt of affection towards Emily and her 
mother. 

With this disposition he sought an oppor- 
tunity, one afternoon when the other ladies 
were invisible, to follow Helena to her apart- 
ment. 

Now it is coming,’’ she thought, with 
anguish. But her inward agitation did not 
betray itself in her manner. Outwardly she 
remained perfectly calm. 

I want to talk with you seriously, Helena,” 
Harold began, in a voice trembling with 
emotion. I do not think the present state 
of things ought to go on much longer.” 

I quite agree with you. — Well ? ” 

^‘1 know you are dissatisfied with me and 


282 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


you have a right to be. I know I am too 
weak, too faltering, too childish, if you will. 
But try to bear with me. I have thought it 
all out so many times — trying to persuade 
myself — sometimes I think I have succeeded 
— that everything which has happened is 
right and fair, on your side at least. You 
yielded, like myself, to a feeling too powerful 
to resist ; you have nothing to reproach your- 
self with, — will have nothing when you are 
all my own. But I, Helena ! I have broken 
faith with the sweetest, kindest child in the 
world ; I have deceived her mother, who had 
intrusted to me her daughter’s happiness. Do 
you wonder that my conscience smites me even 
in your arms?” 

Have I ever denied Emily’s merits ? ” 
asked Helena, as he paused as if expecting a 
reply. 

No, no, never ; and it is because you are 
so generous that I know you will forgive me 
for speaking to you openly about her. But 
that is not all, dear. You have been in the 
world much more than I. I know you do not 
feel about some things quite as I do. I can- 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 283 


not help the thought that we — that is, that 
I ought to have waited to free myself from the 
obligations I incurred so long ago, never 
dreaming that you were one day to cross my 
path before I acknowledged my love to you 
and sought yours in return, — the thought, 
dear, that we have plucked the fruit before it 
was ripe, that we should have heen willing to 
abide the season.” 

Do you think it would have been any 
sweeter, later ? ” asked Helena, the sarcastic 
tone of whose voice was strangely at variance 
with the tenderness which, in spite of herself, 
welled into her eyes. 

Sweeter? Oh! no,” sighed Harold, falling 
upon his knees before her. Helena, Helena, 
do not tempt me now. Leave me my reason 
and the power to speak, so that you will under- 
stand. Just now, you see, I contradicted 
myself. Perhaps everything is right. You 
at least have done no wrong. I will believe it. 
You are good and great and noble. You shall 
tell me what to do. I am ready to break with 
Emily. I should have done so already if it 
had not been for her strange illness, for which 


284 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


I cannot help holding myself partially respon- 
sible.’’ 

You will get through life charmingly if 
you burden yourself with all the ills of other 
people,” said Helena. 

Oh ! But you understand, dearest. It was 
my uneasy conscience. I cannot help shudder- 
ing when I think how black the future will 
look to her. I am sure you pity her too.” 

Yes,” answered Helena with a peculiar 
intonation in her voice. understand and 

I pity her; but let me give you a piece of 
advice, Harold. Never again let one woman 
you love perceive the depth of your affection 
for another.” 

I should never be all myself with any one 
but you,” answered the young man. Be- 
sides, such counsel is perfectly superfluous, for 
I never shall love any one but you. You are 
the world to me, you are all I ever dreamt 
or longed for. It almost seems to me that my 
life began when I saw you first, and that I 
exist through you.” 

He took her hands and kissed them. 

Helena abandoned her hands to his clasp. 


RUPTURE AKD RECONCILIATION. 285 

Surely, she might allow herself so much. It 
was for the last time. 

Presently Harold raised his head again. 

My heart is already lighter now that I have 
broached this dreaded subject,” he said. Let 
me confess the whole truth to you. There 
have been times when I have meant to leave 
you, but I know now that the tie to you is 
stronger than all others. I cannot leave you, 
my darling, I cannot live without you. I will 
place everything in your hands. You shall 
dictate and I will obey. How will you have 
me act ? ” 

Tell me first what you propose.” 

I would speak with Emily, to-day, — to- 
morrow. She could bear it now ; but it would 
be impossible for you to be here when the 
rupture comes. I must be sincere, and even 
if I were not she would know that only one 
cause could make me break faith with her. 
You feel kindly towards Emily and her mother, 
I believe, I know ; but, of course, all relations 
between them and us must cease. Will you 
go away first and shall I join you as soon as 
I have parted from them? Or is it best to 


286 


A SOBRENTO ROMANCE. 


wait a little longer ? As soon as Emily 
is better, they will go north. They spoke of 
it only last night, you remember. I might 
accompany them to some place where they 
would be well cared for, and then return to 
you ; or you might come to meet me wherever 
you prefer. In either case, we could be 
married at once. There is a United States 
minister in every capital, and the necessary 
formalities would require but little time. I 
think you will agree with me that under the 
circumstances everything should be done as 
quietly and privately as possible.” 

This is the first time you have spoken to 
me of marriage,” said Helena evasively. 

Perhaps in just these terms,” replied her 
lover in a surprised tone ; and I have told 
you, Helena, after that night, there — on the 
terrace — when we both succumbed — when 
the barriers fell before me and all was delirium 
— when I awoke again, there was a moment 
when I meant to ask you to forgive me and 
to set me free. But I could not, — could not. 
Since then my ceaseless thought has been how 
to attain our future with the least agony to us 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 287 

all. What future can there be for us but 
marriage? You feel this too. Why do you 
try me now when I confess to you every weak- 
ness and ask you for strength ? Have you a 
wiser plan than any of mine to propose ? ” 
There was a pause. Helena hesitated before 
striking the final blow. 

There is an obstacle to your matrimonial 
projects,” she said at last slowly. 

An obstacle,” repeated Harold. I don’t 
understand you. We love each other. I have 
already sacrificed truth and honor for your 
love,” he continued sadly. What obstacle 
can there be ? ” 

^^My husband.” 

‘^Your husband!” cried the young man, 
springing to his feet. Good God 1 Helena, 
what do you mean ? ” 

Exactly what I say,” she replied in a hard 
voice, from which every trace of tender 
emotion was vanished. M. Raimond is only 
taking a pleasure-trip for the moment, — to the 
South Sea Islands perhaps, or the sources of 
the Nile. I have not the pleasure of knowing 
his precise address ; but, I assure you, he 


288 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


exists and is quite capable of sending for \T..y 
to come and share his solitude.” 

Harold stared at her with haggard eyes. 
He grasped the back of the chair for support. 

This is devilish,” he gasped ; it is some 
awful dream. Speak to me, wake me, Helena ; 
tell me it is not true.” 

To this agonized appeal there came no reply. 

Can it be possible ? ” he began again. 

Has all this time that seemed so bright and 
fair been one long lie? Have you so utterly 
deceived me ? ” 

Did I ever tell you that my husband was 
dead?” 

Not in so many words : that is not neces- 
sary, but ” 

Then do not blame me,” she interrupted, 

if you allowed yourself to be misled by 
appearances.” 

Harold gazed at her with a horror and 
bewilderment too deep for speech. Yet the 
feeling that had ruled his breast could not die 
in an instant, even under the infliction of 
never so great an injury. 

But you loved me, Helena,” he stammered, 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 289 


You love me still. Everything is over be- 
tween us ; but tell me that it was your love 
for me which led you into such a cruel deceit, 
and I will still forgive you. At least, let me 
be able to think of you with tenderness and 
regret.’’ 

Listen to me,” said Helena, her control of 
her intense inward anguish lending a strange 
harshness to her voice. We may as well be 
perfectly frank with each other. I loved you 
as women like me love. We cannot live very 
long without some excitement ; — here was 
one at hand. My heart was quite disengaged. 
It is only fair that you should know that — 
morally — I am perfectly free from Raimond ; 
there was never any pretence of sentiment 
between us. The season, the climate, the very 
voluptuousness of nature, — everything here 
inclines the imaofination towards love. You 
have been, for me, the recipient object.” 

The w^ords fell from her lips slowly, one by 
one, like drops of venom scathing her hearer’s 
soul. 

Then you have played with me all this 
time ? ” he asked hoarsely. You have robbed 


290 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


me of my peace, my integrity, my honor, for 
the sake of a mere caprice]? ” 

Why take it so tragically ? ” she returned. 
^^You ought rather to be grateful to me. 
We have both been actors in a delicious idyl, 
which might have lasted still longer hut for 
your hesitations and scruples. Do you suppose 
I have not seen them all ? Do you think that 
was not enough to turn me from you ? Yes, 
we must part ; but the fault of this manner of 
parting lies with you.” 

Harold passed his hand two or three times 
wearily across liis forehead, as if to dispel some 
evil dream. — Indeed, he had not thoroughly 
comprehended. 

Yes, we must part,” he said; but, surely, 
not so Surely, you have some kind, some 
tender word for me, Helena ! ” 

“ I have said all I have to say.” 

Is this your last word ? ” 

‘‘My last word.” 

Harold staggered rather than walked towards 
the door. But, before reaching the threshold, 
he turned once more. Even then he could not 
bring himself to believe her. Even then she 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 291 


might have won back his forgiveness ; perhaps 
something of his regard. 

“ Do you not love me, Helena ? ’* he asked 
despairingly. 

There was a second’s pause. 

No,” said Helena. 

He reached the door, — it closed behind him. 

Then a great cry rose up from the depths of 
Helena’s soul, — “ Harold ! ” But she stifled it 
on her lips. It did not reach his ear. 

Helena rose, but her trembling limbs would 
not sustain her. She sank upon the ground, 
her golden head bowed low. The sword that 
had penetrated her lover’s heart had pierced her 
own as well. With his departing figure there 
seemed to go from her the last ray of youth 
and hope and happiness. 

That evening, Harold did not appear at din- 
ner ; but Helena, sure of not meeting him and 
desirous at any cost to avoid exciting remark 
by her absence, took her place at the table as 
usual. All her power of dissimulation, how- 
ever, could not entirely conceal the traces of 
recent emotion. Deep circles lay beneath her 
eyes, which were dim with weeping. 


292 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


I hope we aren’t going to have you ill, too, 
my dear,” said Mrs. Wyndham, regarding her 
with some apprehension. You don’t look at 
all well, to-night.” 

Oh ! don’t be frightened about me,” Helena 
answered ; there is never any danger for me. 
I do not remember having been ill once in my 
life. I am as ^ tough as a pine-knot,’ as we 
should say in Yankee-land.” 

Well, I can’t help it ; you don’t look well.” 
“ It is this sirocco air ; people who have lived 
in Italy a long time always feel it more than 
the new-comers. Besides, I received some un- 
pleasant news this afternoon, which I have 
perhaps allowed to affect me too much.” 

Oh ! I am very sorry. By the way, do 
you know where Harold is ? ” 

^^No, I have not seen him since just after 
lunch.” 

It is very wrong of him to go off and not 
come back to his meals. He has not been like 
himself ever since Emily’s illness. Of course, 
it is natural that he should feel anxious, par- 
ticularly as he was not allowed to see her for 
so long. But, as I told him, he need not worry 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 293 

himself into a fever too. I can’t afford to have 
a whole family of invalids on my hands. But 
you young people are so strange. You will 
come and see Emily, — won’t you ? ” she con- 
tinued as they left the table. 

Not to-night ; thank you. Give her my 
love, and tell her I have letters to write. I 
shall see her to-morrow morning. She will 
begin to come down to the table very soon, I 
hope.” 

Yes, in a day or two. She dreads the 
stairs a little, and I don’t like to force her. 
Good-night, then, if you won’t come.” 

Emily and her mother remained longer than 
usual on their terrace that evening, awaiting 
Harold’s arrival. It was late when they retired 
for the night; but still he had not returned. 
On the following morning a servant brought 
Emily a scrap of paper on which were hastily 
scrawled a few words, to the effect that Harold 
had gone in a fishing-boat to Amalfi. He 
wished to make some sketches there, he said, 
and might not return for several days. 

It is very foolish of him,” said Mrs. Wynd- 
ham, to whom Emily handed the piece of paper. 


294 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


I believe he has set his heart on getting a 
sunstroke or something. You must hurry and 
get strong, Emily, — for I want to leave this 
place.” 

So do I,” replied her daughter, though 
it seems ungrateful to say so.” 

A few days later Emily was half reclining in 
her great chair, which had as usual been rolled 
out upon the terrace. The sirocco had ceased. 
A refreshing breeze, blowing from the sea, 
stirred the folds of her white dress, and flut- 
tered the blue ribbons that tied the long braids 
of her hair. On an empty chair beside her lay 
the many-colored piece of worsted work belong- 
ing to her mother, who had stepped indoors to 
arrange her toilette for dinner. A book lay 
upon Emily’s lap, but she was not reading. 
A paper-knife lay across the freshly-cut pages. 
The young girl’s eyes wandered past the orange- 
groves to the hills, lying so soft, so tender, so 
misty, and yet distinct in outline, against the 
spotless, fathomless afternoon sky. Here and 
there a grape-vine, clambering up from the 
garden below, trailed itself across the scanty 
lattice-work of poles surmounting the terrace. 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 295 


Opposite her chair stood a great pot of glowing 
scarlet geraniums. Now and then a bright 
green lizard ran swiftly along the stone wall 
by which the terrace was encircled. Once 
again, this afternoon, as frequently before, the 
beauty of the scene struck Emily as if she were 
beholding it for the first time. Once again, — 
as oh ! how often ! — she asked herself, How 
could it be possible that anything had happened 
to mar this perfect poem ? ” She was so absorbed 
in contemplation that she did not notice a step 
coming softly along the corridor leading to her 
terrace. Suddenly she felt that some one was 
standing behind her. Two or three freshly- 
culled flowers fell into her lap. 

Oh ! ” cried the young girl ; Harold, is it 
you?” 

^‘1 have come back, Emily/’ replied Harold 
in a grave, sad voice. 

‘‘Mamma,” said Emily half an hour later 
when the dinner-bell rang, “ I feel so much 
better to-night I think I will go down-stairs.'' 

Harold could never have told afterwards how 
he lived through that first meal in Helena's 
presence. He had a vague recollection of 


296 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


making a feint to eat, of sending away plate 
after plate untouched, of devoting himself ner- 
vously to Emily, of inventing excuses to pacify 
her mother who was alarmed at his want of 
appetite. Through it was a dim consciousness 
of being helped now and then by some dis- 
creet speech or discreeter silence on Helena’s 
part, and of being angry with himself for avail- 
ing himself of her assistance. 

But Helena, watching him unobserved with 
the swift penetration some women possess, saw 
how fatally well she had done her work. She 
saw that every spark of confidence in and 
esteem for her was gone ; that soon the last ling- 
ering embers of a love which sought to outlive 
the rest would, in their turn, be extinguished. 
She saw the bitterness of soul, the agonized 
throbs with which his heart still quivered. 
Her own responded, but she made no sign. 

Yet, in spite of the gulf that had opened be- 
tween them, Helena and Harold still found 
themselves, in a measure, accomplices. There 
was a tacit understanding that everything 
should be avoided which might excite the sus- 
picions of the elder lady, who, naturally none 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 297 

too clear-sighted and lately absorbed in the 
care of her daughter, had fortunately remained 
in ignorance of the drama enacting before her. 

Helena still passed some portion of each day 
with Emily, at which times Harold invariably 
contrived to be absent from the house. During 
the hours which he devoted to the young girl, 
Helena was always otherwise engaged. Emily’s 
delicate health afforded a pretext for some 
change in their way of life. The evening re- 
unions were renounced. When circumstances 
or the preservation of appearances forced them 
into companionship, Harold sometimes forgot 
himself, betraying his embarrassment ; Helena 
never lost her self-possession. Her manner 
towards the young man varied hardly a shade 
from her former one. This very self-control 
and apparent coolness recalled to him more 
and more persistently the horrible deception of 
which he had been the victim. 

Everything Helena did or said seemed false 
to him. He longed to be beyond the sound of 
that voice which still had power to thrill him 
with the memory of what had been ; — out of 
sight of that beguiling, baneful beauty. It 


298 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


appeared to his excited fancy that Helena must 
corrupt everything with which she came in 
contact ; that Emily herself would grow less 
sweet, less good, less innocent beneath her 
contaminating influence. While such was the 
state of affairs between the two persons so 
lately lovers, a regard for appearances, or the 
repugnance to an explanation, more than any- 
thing else, still held the two young women 
together. As we know, Emily had never 
ceased to admire Helena even in the midst of 
her suffering. Now she perceived that a 
change had come over the mutual relations of 
her friend and her lover, and her own heart 
beat with renewed hope. Yet it was natural 
that the warmth of her friendship should have 
abated somewhat. She no longer felt quite at 
ease in Helena’s presence. She was anxious to 
leave her and Sorrento; to seek amid new 
scenes, relief from the painful sensations of 
the past weeks. Meanwhile, she was grow- 
ing stronger every day. She had already 
been to drive two or three times, when, one 
afternoon, she expressed a wish to walk down 
to the sea. 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 299 


If Harold will come with me and give me 
his arm on the way back, I am sure I can ac- 
complish the ascent nicely/’ she said, in reply 
to her mother’s objections. If I can do that, 
then I am fit for anything, and we can start on 
our journey to-morrow, if you like.” 

^^Your obstinacy shows me that you are 
quite well again,” said her mother, laughing. 

Very well ; try it, if you think best.” 

No, I want to go to the very end,” insisted 
Emily, as Harold proposed stopping midway 
down the path. They descended the steps, 
flight after flight, until they reached the 
water’s edge. There, crossing to the prom- 
ontory, where they had spent so many morn- 
ings, Harold spread a shawl upon the rocks, 
and they seated themselves, looking towards 
the setting sun whose brilliancy was softened 
by a bank of clouds. 

How lonof it seems since we used to come 
here,” said Emily, after a time. 

Yes, I was thinking of that, too.” 

And how much has happened since then,” 
continued the young girl. 

Harold looked at her keenly, as if to gather 


300 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


the significance of her words. What did she 
mean ? How much had she divined ? The 
impulse to speak came upon him, to confide his 
sufferings and struggles to the gentle creature 
beside him, to seek from her forgiveness and 
repose. 

Emily,” he began, I have a long and sad 
confession to make to you. Will you let me 
make it now?” 

She raised her hand with a deprecatory 
gesture. 

Oh ! Harold, do not tell me anything. I 
do not wish to know.” 

^^But you must know, child. We must be 
sincere with each other. I cannot live and 
know that there is a veil between us. I can 
never be happy at your side if I have not told 
you how I have sinned against you, and asked 
your pardon. If it were not now, it must be 
another time, — soon. May it he now, Emily ? ” 

As you wish,” returned the young girl, 
submissively. Speak, dear Harold, if you 
must.” 

And Harold spoke. With many a pause, 
with frequent hesitations for language in which 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 301 


to clothe thoughts so chaotic in his own mind, 
he told of the swerving of his faith from her 
and of its faltering return. He made no 
attempt to exculpate himself with that old 
excuse : The woman tempted me and I did 

eat/’ which renders the first man forever con- 
temptible in the eyes of the opposite sex. 

Helena’s name was hardly mentioned. To 
judge from his representation, one would have 
considered him alone culpable. 

Can you forgive me, Emily ? ” he asked, 
when his story was told. 

I love you, Harold,” she answered simply, 
and pity, pardon, comfort and support were 
united in those four words. 

^^But I hardly know myself,” he went on. 

It seems as if something were broken within 
me which never could be mended again : as if 
a chord had ceased to sound. All that is left 
in my heart is yours ; but I have no longer 
what I once had to offer you. Can you take 
what is left, — the poor remnants, — and bear 
with me still ? ” 

love you, Harold,” the young girl re- 
peated. 


302 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Oh ! you are good, you are generous/’ 
cried Harold. “ Heaven will give me strength 
again. You shall not repent of your noble 
part.” 

Stooping, he pressed his lips to the hem of 
her white dress. But Emily drew back quickly. 

Don’t, don’t, Harold ! ” she exclaimed ; I 
am not so good as you think me. I knew, I 
imagined, something of this before. I heard 
what you said in Capri. — And Harold, I need 
not have fallen into the water if I had taken 
hold of the boat.” 

Good God ! how awful ! ” cried Harold, 
horrified. 

‘^Yes, it was very wicked. Suddenly it 
came over me that it would be much easier for 
me and every one if I were out of the way. I 
never thought of poor mamma, I never thought 
of your remorse. 1 was only very miserable, 
and I let myself go.” 

Good God ! ” ejaculated Harold again. 

Only very lately, since my strength has 
begun to come back,” continued Emily, ^‘1 
have seen things as they are. At first, I won- 
dered what I had done ; but now, I know my 


RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION. 303 


fault. I, too, have been to blame. I was so 
absorbed myself in Helena that I half forgot 
you, and I gave you no support. Can you 
forgive me, Harold?” 

You are the soul of generosity, Emily,” 
Harold answered, I have nothing to forgive. 
But that you could be led to such a horror 
shows me still more clearly the enormity of 
my offence against you.” 

Hush ! ” whispered Emily, and, leaning 
towards him, she kissed him on the forehead. 

At that moment there was formed between 
them a deeper, holier bond than the first had 
been. Each began to measure the demands of 
the future and to recognize wherein past fail- 
ure lay. Harold resolved to repay with unfal- 
tering devotion Emily’s constancy and long- 
suffering affection, and, above all, to keep 
himself worthy of her sweet and innocent 
companionship. Emily realized that with her 
it lay, not only to restore her lover’s broken 
spirit by the gentle offices of tenderness, but 
to be the stimulating, appreciative friend ; to 
follow him upon those paths to which his 
completer genius should lead him, while pre- 


304 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


serving for him within the circle of her modest 
influence a place of peace and repose. 

A humbler, sadder, but a wiser pair, — they 
would, when the time came, enter upon their 
common destiny, than if these sorrowful floods 
had never swept across their souls. 

For, in the wise provision enabling human 
beings to derive some unexpected compensation 
from almost every vicissitude of life, how often 
does it not happen that from the bitterest 
fountains of experience flow waters of content 1 


CHAPTER X. 


DEPARTURE. 

Now the guide-books were produced. On 
Mrs. Wyndham’s table lay a whole library of 
small red-covered volumes which she and her 
daughter consulted, and pored over with a 
persistency well known to all persons who have 
ever planned a journey to an unfamiliar spot. 
As soon as one route was studied out and all 
but chosen, another would suggest itself a» 
perhaps preferable. Then they would be sure 
to forget the first, and the entire process would 
have to be gone over again. The Baede- 
kers ’’ took, for a time, the place of all other 
literature. After all, there is a fascination 
about guide-books. One turns to them agaia 


306 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


and again, till one knows their contents almost 
by heart : just as one reads and re-reads the 
placards and advertisements in a railway- 
station during a long period of waiting for a 
train ; or as, confined to one’s bed by illness, 
one traces the pattern of the wall-paper, mak- 
ing out its figures and designs, until every dot 
and line is engraven on the brain. 

Once more Helena’s experience was valuable 
to her friends. They had at first intended 
going to Switzerland, but Emily shrank from 
meeting many people. There awoke in her 
mind an old desire to see the Tyrol, inspired by 
the perusal of Quits,” which agreeable book 
has probably led many persons to visit the 
scenes among which its story is laid. Helena 
gave them much information about portions of 
the Tyrol and the Bavarian Highlands, with 
which she was familiar : telling them where 
they might find the combined advantages of 
fine air, quiet, and not too great remoteness 
from Munich, in which city the ladies wished 
to pass some weeks in the autumn, when Har- 
old should have returned to Paris. 

As the moment of departure drew near, a 


DEPARTURE. 


307 


feeling of unrest ?jid excitement took pos- 
session of them all. With Mrs. Wyndham’s 
feeling, in spite of her previous desire to leave 
Sorrento, a keen regret was mingled ; and 
Emily, too, though anxious to be gone, felt a 
pang of sadness when the day decided upon 
for their journey dawned at last. We often 
take root more deeply than we know in the 
soil upon which even our temporary abode has 
been fixed ; on leaving it we are astonished to 
find how closely the fibres of our being cling 
to the accustomed spot, with what difficulty 
they may be loosened. Besides, almost every 
one dreads, in some degree, the uncertainty of 
a future in which the old order of things is to 
be altered. However desirable a change may 
appear, the moment of its accomplishment is 
rarely entirely free from apprehension. 

Helena watched and assisted her friends, in 
their preparation for their journey, with 
divided sentiments. Each day brought with 
it a greater strain upon her nerves, taxing, 
almost beyond endurance, her power of self- 
control and dissimulation. Yet, though her 
present position towards Harold was so painful 


308 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


and revolting, there were times when it seemed 
to her that to see him, even while suffering 
from his scorn and reprobation, was better 
than not to see him at all. This parting 
would, of course, be final. Harold had no 
other wish than to find himself removed, as far 
as possible, from Helena and all she recalled 
to him. He waited with feverish impatience 
for the last hour of their intercourse to strike. 
Emily, who had always been accustomed to 
pack her own and her mother’s trunks, was 
unfitted at present for such an arduous task. 
Helena set her maid to work upon the Wynd- 
hams’ luggage, superintending and suggesting 
herself in a way which much lessened the 
other ladies’ responsibility. 

^^Well, I declare!” said Mrs. Wyndham, 
seating herself on the last trunk that was 
locked and corded, and glancing with a mourn- 
ful air about the empty-looking room, I 
would not have believed that I should feel so 
sorry to go away. It is surprising how attached 
one becomes to a place. As for you, my 
dear,” she continued, turning to Helena, you 
have been a real providence. I don’t know 


DEPARTURE. 


309 


what we should ever have done without you. 
Suppose I had had to nurse Emily through 
this sickness all by myself, with nobody near 
who understood this foreign talk. The idea 
quite makes me tremble, — even now that the 
danger is over. And you have made it seem 
like home here from the first moment. The 
padrone — is that what you call him ? — ought 
to give you a medal. I have thought some- 
times,’’ she went on after a pause, hesitating 
a little, that Emily does not, somehow, seem 
quite the same since her illness : not always 
as mindful as she should be of your great 
kindness to her; but I hope, if it is so, you 
will excuse her. She is not quite well yet, and 
her head and Harold’s seem turned with the 
idea of this journey. A little while ago, they 
both thought there was no place like Sorrento, 
and now they behave as if they could not get 
away from it fast enough. I really don’t 
understand young people nowadays. But, I 
assure you, Emily is grateful to you in her 
heart. I wish you knew how many times she 
has said so.” 

Dear Mrs. Wyndham,” Helena replied. 


310 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Emily has often thanked me a great deal too 
much for what has been a mutual advantage. 
I have enjoyed the society of you all quite as 
much as you say you have enjoyed mine, and 
I am more sorry to lose you now than you can 
be to go. — I was telling your mother, Emily,’^ 
she added as the young girl entered the room, 
how grieved I am to part with you. We 
were recalling some of the pleasant hours we 
have passed together. You will not forget 
them either when we are separated, — will 
you? 

The color rushed into the young girl’s face 
at what she fancied to be an implied reproach. 

Oh ! Helena,” she exclaimed, with more 
warmth than she had lately manifested towards 
her friend, I shall never forget how you have 
helped and taught me, — all you have been to 
me. I shall always remember you and be 
grateful to you, though this is the end of all.” 

“ I don’t see why you should both talk as if 
you never expected to meet again,” said Mrs. 
W yndham ; ‘‘ we are not going home for a long 
time. We may he in Italy again, and Mrs. 
Eaimond will be sure to come to Paris. Or, if 


DEPARTURE. 


311 


not, you have an aunt in America, Mrs. Rai- 
mond : you go to see her sometimes, — don’t 
you?” 

I have been once,” answered Helena. 

Then you must come and make us a visit, 
too. Will you promise ? ” 

You are very good,” replied Helena ; but 
everything seems so uncertain — and some- 
times I feel so old, so old — that I dare not 
look forward to anything.” 

^^What nonsense!” exclaimed Mrs. Wynd- 
ham. A strong young woman like you 1 I 
wish you would not talk so lugubriously. It 
makes me feel worse than ever. There would 
be more sense in my going on in such a strain ; 
but I am sure we shall meet again, and per- 
haps — who knows ? — spend another long sum- 
mer together as pleasant as this has been.” 

Let us hope so,” said Helena and Emily, 
hypocritically. They both knew that a cause 
of which the elder lady was ignorant would 
divide their paths forever. 

The travellers were to leave by the Naples 
boat ; and at three o’clock the carriage which 
was to convey them to the shore drove up to 


312 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


the door. Helena was to accompany them. 
The host and hostess of the Cocumella, with 
their children and the corps of servants, were 
assembled to witness the departure. Some 
wraps and travelling-bags having been handed 
up to the driver, the party entered the carriage. 
As a last attention the padrone came forward 
with two enormous bouquets of flowers, which 
he presented to the ladies with a low bow and 
an appropriate speech. Addio, huon viaggio, 
a rivederci ! ” he concluded. — Amid a chorus 
of good wishes and farewells and a great 
waving of hats and handkerchiefs, the carriage 
moved away. Its occupants were very silent. 
In a moment of terror at the fancied approach 
of another carriage in the narrow lane (the 
object coming towards them proved to be a 
laden mule, which was hurried down a side- 
path, out of their way), Mrs. Wyndham 
clutched Helena’s hand and did not let it go 
again. Harold, who, in the natural order of 
their entering the carriage, found himself 
opposite Helena, kept his gaze fastened on the 
walls between which they passed, tliat he 
might not encounter her eyes. Emily, divining 


DEPARTURE. 


313 


his discomfort, longed for the drive to be over. 
The desired moment soon arrived. Ratthng 
across the pavement of the square, the carriage 
stopped at the steps descending to the beach. 
Some men were already carrying down the 
trunks. The hotel porter came up and touched 
his hat. 

The steamer is almost in, signora,' he 
said to Helena. ‘‘ There is not much time to 
lose.’’ 

Helena translated his words to Mrs. Wynd- 
ham. Harold felt a thrill of thankfulness that 
the adieux would be cut short. 

They descended the long flight of steps lead- 
ing to the low stone pier, beside which a row- 
boat was lying. 

Let the old lady go first. May I help you, 
signora ? ” said the porter. 

Mrs. Wyndham turned to Helena and kissed 
her affectionately, holding both her hands. 

Good-by, my dear,” she said ; and once 
more, — a thousand, thousand thanks.” 

The tears stood in her eyes as the porter on 
one side, and Harold on the other, assisted 
her to step into the boat. 


314 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


In the meantime Helena put her arms 
around Emily’s neck. 

Think of me kindly, Emily,” she whispered 
in the young girl’s ear ; I have been a better 
friend to you than you know.” 

A misgiving of some injustice on her part 
arose in Emily’s mind. A wave of the old 
warm feeling swept over her. She clung to 
her friend in a long embrace. 

Harold looked on impatiently. He could 
not bear that Helena’s mouth should touch 
Emily’s pure lips. 

It is time to go,” he said sharply. 

The young women separated. Helena stood 
aside while Emily entered the boat. Then, 
boldly, half defiantly, she offered her hand to 
Harold. He could not refuse to take it, with 
all eyes fixed upon him ; but his own hand lay 
limp and cold in Helena’s clasp. 

Good-by,” she said softly, in a sad tone. 

Good-by,” he answered coldly, leaping 
into the boat. 

The boatman pushed off from the pier. The 
oars rose in the air and fell, flashing, into the 
water. 


DEPARTURE. 


315 


Good-by, dear ! ” called Emily and her 
mother together. 

Good-by, good-by ! Good luck to you, 
huon viaggio ! ’’ was the reply. 

Harold was silent. As he took his place 
beside Emily, Helena saw him lean over the 
edge of the boat and plunge his fingers into 
the water, as if to wash * away the contami- 
nation of her touch. 

The boat moved quickly towards the steamer, 
which approached retarding its speed until it 
stopped in the midst of a number of small 
craft awaiting its arrival. Helena lost sight of 
her friends for a time as they waited, on the 
farther side of the vessel, for the newly-arrived 
persons to disembark. Then she saw them 
come up on deck, and two white signals flut- 
tered in the air as the steamer started swiftly 
away on its course towards Naples. The 
returning row-boats came up to the pier and 
landed their passengers, who looked with 
curiosity at Helena. But she remained im- 
movable until the figures of her friends became 
specks upon the deck, then vanished utterly, 
and nothing was to be seen but the black hulk 


316 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


of the receding vessel and a long trail of 
smoke in the air. 

It was over. They were gone beyond recall. 

He for whom she had felt the purest love, 
to whom she had brought the greatest sacrifice 
of her, life had parted from her ignorant 
of her devotion, bearing away only scorn and 
horror of her memory. 

So it was to be,’’ she thought wearily, in 
the sort of fatalism to which she was inclined. 

Who shall dare to say that the worst of life 
is past for him ? ” 

The hotel seemed desolate and deserted 
when she entered it again. She went slowly 
upstairs, into that part of the house where her 
friends’ apartments were situated. The win- 
dows and doors of Harold’s room stood wide 
open. A servant was preparing it for the 
reception of some future guest. She felt as if 
she had come home from a funeral ; but this 
parting was worse than death. 

She turned away from Harold’s door and 
went to her own room.' On the floor, leaning 
against a chair, she saw a large square pack- 
age. She opened it hastily and found, as she 


DEPARTURE. 


317 


had expected, her own unfinished portrait. It 
had not been touched since Emily’s illness. 
She knew that no copy had been made of it. 
She knew that Harold had abandoned the 
design of the large picture he had desired so 
ardently to paint. She knew that he was 
unwilling to owe to her or even indirectly to 
associate her with any portion of his future 
reputation. She gazed long upon this sem- 
blance of herself ; then, setting it down with a 
sigh, she went to open the blinds which had 
been partially closed to exclude the dazzling 
afternoon sun. She looked across the bay in 
the direction in which the steamer had dis- 
appeared. Now not even a film of smoke was 
visible. It was a glorious August afternoon. 
The blue mirror of the sea lay rippled, here 
and there into white caps, beneath a glowing 
sky. The foliage in the garden was of as 
deep an emerald hue as ever. On the vines 
that twined and clambered everywhere lay 
thick clusters of half-ripe grapes. But the 
heavens seemed as brass above her. Beauty 
had faded from the scene. For Nature — the 
great consoler, the harbinger of hope — may 


318 


A SOERENTO ROMANCE. 


bear a balm for many a sorrow, may soothe 
them who bow beneath the loss of friends and 
fortune, may with her eternal tranquillity 
lend repose to the soul in many a troubled 
hour, — but for the stings of hopeless love she 
brings no rehef ! 


CHAPTER XI. 


THE IRONY OF FATE. 

More than a month elasped before Helena 
received any news from her absent friends. 
She herself continued to remain at Sorrento 
because it was still too early in the season to 
return to Rome, and because she had neither 
energy nor will to seek any mental diversion 
elsewhere. She was weary and listless. Her 
pencils and brushes were piled upon her closed 
box of colors. The book she pretended to 
read often lay for hours on her lap open at 
the same page. She never sang. Only her 
piano still afPorded her occupation. To that 
she frequently turned, conjuring up from the 
hidden possibilities of music a world of sad 


320 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


harmonies in which was reflected the heaviness 
of her heart. 

Josephine, who was much attached to her 
mistress, kept the rooms more carefully swept 
and garnished than ever, and the vases filled 
with flowers ; but Helena took little notice of 
her maid’s efforts to please her. She permitted 
herself to be attired in whatever Josephine 
laid before her. A dull indifference to every- 
thing had usurped the place of her ordinary 
vivacity. For almost the first time in her life, 
her courage had failed her ; her natural buoy- 
ancy of temperament was gone. 

It happened that for two or three days 
Josephine had returned empty-handed from the 
post-office, when, one morning, she appeared be- 
fore her mistress with a large bundle of letters 
and newspapers just arrived in the early mail. 

Helena tossed the envelopes impatiently aside^ 
till she came to one directed in Emily’s hand- 
writing. Her cheek flushed as she hastily tore 
it open. Emily’s letter was as follows : — 

“ Garmisch, Bavaria, Sept. — , 188-. 

My dear Helena, — I am afraid you have 
been very much surprised at not hearing 


THE IRONY OF FATE. 


321 


from me before now, and have thought me 
very neglectful. But neither indifference nor 
forgetfulness was the cause of my silence. 

Now, I will tell you all about us. Mamma 
was very sea-sick while crossing to Naples and 
wished she had never left Sorrento, or at least 
that we had chosen the land route. We passed 
one night in Naples, as was intended ; then, as 
mamma has a horror of Rome in summer, we 
stayed the second night at Albano, which we 
left early in the morning in order to take the 
through train north, from Rome. 

It was very hot in Florence, and I did not 
bear the travelling so well as we had expected. 
When we reached Innsbruck I was all worn out 
again. I meant to have written to you there, 
but I was too tired to do much of anything, 
and as mamma never writes letters, I had to 
attend to her correspondence. 

Harold left mamma and me to take care of 
ourselves for a time in Innsbruck while he went 
with some other young men on a short walking 
tour. I will not attempt to tell you where 
they went, the names of the places are so queer 
and hard. But they crossed a great glacier^ 


322 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


coming out at Meran, and went up the Passeir 
Valley, and saw the house where the Tyrolese 
patriot Andreas Hofer used to live, and the 
hut on the mountain where he hid and was 
taken prisoner by Napoleon’s soldiers. 

As we came along the banks of the Adige 
I thought a great deal about Napoleon. The 
great soldier and his victorious legions seemed 
to defile before me. But I am forgetting of 
how little interest my impressions must be to 
you. 

^^For the last week or so we have almost 
lived in a carriage, making some of the ex- 
cursions you planned for us. Now we are very 
pleasantly settled in Garmisch, and thank you 
for sending us here. 

The weather is perfect. Is there anything 
more delightful than September days, when a 
light haze rests on the landscape, when the air 
is cool and refreshing, and the sun at the 
same time so warm and cheering? 

I love, too, to watch the mountain streams. 
How they rush through the valleys, striking 
against the rocks and stones of their beds, the 
lines of foam whirling back again till it seems 

O O 


THE IRONY OF FATE. 


323 


as if half the stream were trying to flow back- 
wards to its starting-place ! It makes me think 
how we are always doing the same thing: 
fighting and struggling, trying to resist the 
current of destiny and death, — and it is all 
of no use. ^ The great river bears us to the 
main,’ where, according to your belief, there 
is nothing but silence. You see you have 
taught me to feel the symbolism of nature. 
How much you have taught me, Helena, and 
how grateful I ought to be — and am to you ! 

We shall stay here about a fortnight and 
then go to Munich. We hope you will write 
to us at the ^ Four Seasons ; ’ or, if that is 
not convenient, after November, to Munroe’s 
care, in Paris. I have reached my ninth page, 
and I am sure you must be tired of having to 
read so much. Mamma is very well. She 
«ends you a great deal of love, and hopes you 
will forgive my delay in writing. We thank 
you once more, most sincerely, for all you 
have done for us, and for your unvarying 
kindness. Good-by. 

Believe me very affectionately yours, 

Emily.” 


324 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


Helena came to the close of the sheet before 
her with a keen sense of disappointment. This 
was the letter which she had so longed to 
receive, — for which, day by day, she had 
watched and waited. Through all its pages a 
sense of constraint was visible, — a reserve quite 
unnatural to Emily. The young girl must 
certainly have learned to judge her friend 
more harshly now that she was removed from 
the spell of her presence. Andreas Hofer and 
Napoleon ! What were they to Helena ? 
What did she care for September days, or 
mountain streams? Yet there was a slight 
degree of comfort to be gleaned from Emily’s 
meagre communication. At least, she knew 
where her friends were, and it was evident that 
Harold was well. What more could she de- 
mand ? Did she expect him to send her affec- 
tionate, forgiving messages? 

With a deep sigh, she laid down Emily’s 
letter and took up the next one in the pile. It 
bore the stamp of a Parisian banking-house 
with which she and Raimond had had, at one 
time, extensive dealings. In it were two 
inclosures : one, a letter from the head of the 


THE IRONY OF FATE. 325 

iirm, a gentleman whose wife had formerly been 
one of her intimate acquaintances ; the other, a 
worn, travel-stained envelope, completely cov- 
vered with different addresses and post-marks. 

She read the banker’s note first : — 
Madame,” it began, I write in person to 
offer you my excuses for an unwarrantable 
blunder committed in our house. The inclosed 
letter arrived in Paris more than a month ago. 
One of our clerks was ill. Another, a new hand, 
happened to light upon your old American 
address, and forwarded the letter to New York. 
It has just been returned to us. The young 
man who made the mistake has been severely 
reprimanded, but that does not mend matters. 
I am all the more distressed at the delay of 
this letter as I fancy it may contain an impor- 
tant communication. We heard of your exile 
in Sorrento from Mrs. De Vere. She has been 
to Norway and Sweden. Now she has passed 
through Paris, and carried my wife off to Nice. 
From Nice they are going to Monaco. They 
say because they prefer the view there ! Oh ! 
Madame, how wicked the world is ! I hope 
Felice will not ruin me. I wish you were to 


326 


A SOBREI^TO ROMANCE. 


be with them. I assure you, Felice frequently 
raves, with astonishing disinterestedness, about 
la helle Helene. Are we never to have the 
pleasure of beholding her among us again ? 
Accept, madame, my profoundest apologies and 
my sincerest homage.” 

Helena tore the sheet through the middle 
with a feeling akin to disgust. She hesitated 
before opening the other envelope. She was 
certain that it contained news of Kaimond. 
Perhaps the banker knew more than he had 
chosen to divulge. Perhaps Kaimond was 
about to reappear, as she had always supposed 
he Avould. At last she broke the seal. The 
first page bore the date of the previous June, 
New Kush, South Africa. The writing was 
an unfamiliar one. 

She began to read : — 

Madam Helena C. Kaimond. 

Madam, — It is my duty to inform you 
that your husband, M. Henri Kaimond, who has 
for some months been working on a diamond 
^ claim ’ in this place, lately met with a severe 
accident. He had the misfortune to fall into 


THE IRONY OF FATE. 


327 


one of the pits, receiving serious injuries, both 
internal and external, from the effects of which 
he has just died.” 

The paper dropped from Helena’s hands. 
The room swam before her. 

The letter went on to give the partic- 
ulars of Kaimond’s accident, to acquaint his 
widow with the flourishing condition of his^ 
pecuniary affairs, and to request her to enter 
herself or to cause her lawyer to enter into 
communication with the writer, — who de- 
scribed himself as the physician who had 
attended Raimond, — and become the recipient 
of his last wishes and instructions. 

But, for the present, Helena’s mind could 
grasp only one fact. Raimond was dead — 
had been dead three months. She might have 
kept Harold for her own ! 

If there were any portions of her career 
which would not bear too close a scrutiny, any 
point at which error had become glaring, she 
was reaping her punishment now. Yet when 
she had somewhat recovered from the first 
shock of the blow, when the power of reason 
returned to her, there seemed a sort of grim 


328 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


pleasantry about the turn events had taken. 
Nemesis seemed to stand before her with a 
mocking smile upon her countenance. Yet was 
this justice ? ” Helena asked herself. Wherein 
had she been different from other people ? 
She had only followed the path upon which 
circumstance and education had placed her. 
W as it her fault that she had become what she 
was ? Did no blame attach to those who had 
gone before her ? Where did her personal 
accountability begin or end? With these un- 
answerable questions mingled a doubt which 
in her hours of reflection since Harold’s de- 
parture had often assailed her. Being what 
she was, could she have made him happy? 
Could she long have breathed the pure atmos- 
phere which was life to him? Must she not 
have dragged him down into her own close 
and heated air ? In striving to save herself, — 
might she not have wrecked him? And she 
was a dozen years his senior ! She would be 
almost an. old woman when he had hardly 
crossed the threshold of mature manhood. If 
he had ceased to love her devotedly and, above 
all, to respect her, would she not, in spite of 


THE IRONY OF FATE. 


329 


her intellect and accomplishments, have become 
an obstacle in his way ? a hindrance rather 
than a help ? 

Is it then better as it is ? cried Helena 
aloud. “ At least,” she continued, in a sort of 
desperation, there will be one fair page in my 
story. I shall have proved what the power of 
a true love can do. Once, by its might, I have 
risen above the waves of self. It is not my 
fault if I have had to throw away the hand 
that raised me, — if I must sink again. Now 
let the tide bear me where it will.” 

Josephine hastened to answer a violent sum- 
mons of her mistress’s bell. 

“ I wish you would begin to pack immedi- 
ately, Josephine, ” said Helena ; I shall start 
to-morrow for Monaco, to join Mrs. De Vere.” 

I am glad of it,” said Josephine to herself 
as she went to execute her mistress’s orders. 
******* 

In the following January there appeared, 
among the list of marriages in the Boston 
papers, this notice : — 

In Paris, France, at the American Em- 
bassy, Harold Hart of New York, to Emily, 




330 


A SORRENTO ROMANCE. 


daughter of the late Thomas Wyndham of 
this city.’’ 

In the course of the year succeeding their 
marriage, the young couple returned to Amer- 
ica. At about the same time, Helena was 
induced by some of her influential friends to 
take up her residence in Paris, if only for a 
time.” Sometimes there, sometimes in the 
Italian capital, sometimes at fashionable Eu- 
ropean resorts, she continues to pursue a 
brilliant, but a sad and reckless career. 


THE END. 



U- 


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